Sibthorpe, Christmas 2015

This time last year, we were ringing Fieldfares in a frozen orchard in Flintham. What a difference betwixt winters. I’ve been feeding the garden birds here at Sibthorpe since September, and started the ringing over Christmas. We managed an hour on Christmas day before the rains came, and had another go on the morning of the 27th. 99 birds was pleasing for a new site, but I think the House Sparrows know where the nets are now. A nice surprise was a ringed Lesser Redpoll which was a control!

Species totals were 93/6 (new/retrap): Wren 2, Dunnock 8, Robin 3, Redwing 1, Coal Tit 1, Blue Tit 9, Great Tit 2/1, House Sparrow 37/3, Tree Sparrow 1, Chaffinch 2, Greenfinch 3, Goldfinch 24/1, Lesser Redpoll –/1.

Jim

Sutton Bonington, Sunday 27 December

Gary, Duncan and I met for another ringing session at Sutton Bonington in perfect mist-netting conditions, overcast and dead calm. Catching was steady all morning and we had a reasonable catch but less than I would have expected in the conditions. The Redwing tape was used again first thing but failed to pull in any birds as did a Fieldfare tape.

We finished on 36 birds including 9 retraps. The species totals were (new/retrap): Wren 1/1, Goldcrest 1/0, Dunnock 2/1, Blue Tit 4/3, Chaffinch 1/1, Goldfinch 5/0, Greenfinch 6/0, Lesser Redpoll 1/0, Reed Bunting 5/2, Robin 0/1, Blackbird 1/0.

The retraps were all recently ringed birds. There were decent numbers off birds around including Fieldfares and Yellowhammers.

Kev

Sutton Bonington, Sunday 20 December

The forecast was suggesting it would be too windy today and when the wind whistling and rain beating against the window woke me up at 0430 I thought I would be calling it off. But a couple of hours later the rain had stopped and the wind was considerably lighter but still blowing.

So Gary, Sue, Duncan and I met for another ringing session at Sutton Bonington. The nets went up quickly in the less than ideal breeze and the Redwing tape was deployed again and produced 2 birds on the first round, along with a couple of Chaffinch.

The wind picked up as the morning progressed and certainly hampered catching which was further affected when the sun came up (yes, really the sun, long time no see). We decided to give in to the elements by 1030 and finished on just 11 birds including 4 retraps.

The species totals were (new/retrap): Great Tit 0/1, Blue Tit 0/3, Chaffinch 2/0, Goldfinch 2/0, Greenfinch 1/0, Redwing 2/0. The retraps were all recently ringed birds. There were a decent number off birds around including a few Yellowhammers along with a few Fieldfare and a Buzzard.

Kev

Sutton Bonington, Sunday 13 December

Gary, Sue, Alex and I held the third ringing session at this site this morning in calm overcast conditions with slight drizzle on and off all morning. The Redwing tape was again deployed first thing and produced 4 birds. It was then successfully switched to Goldfinch. Catching was steady throughout after a first round 20+ catch, another 2 new Grey Wagtails was a pleasant surprise. We finished on 51 birds including 12 retraps.

The species totals were (new/retrap): Wren 0/1, Great Tit 0/3, Blue Tit 2/4, Robin 0/2, Chaffinch 3/0, Goldfinch 17/1, Reed Bunting 6/1, Dunnock 3/0, Greenfinch 2/0, Redwing 4/0, Grey Wagtail 2/0.

The retraps were all recently ringed birds. No Yellowhammers caught but there were a couple around along with a few Fieldfare and a Buzzard.

Kev

 Reed Bunting & Grey Wagtails (S. Lakeman)

Ramsdale Park Golf Centre, Tuesday 8 December

I have been trying for weeks to get in a visit to Ramsdale, as much as anything just to see what birds are using the site in the winter. The weather had always been too windy and/or wet, so this week I was determined to get there even if the weather was not great and this morning Mick P and I managed to get a visit in. We had to delay putting up the nets for a while as a shower went over just after we got on site and the wind was stronger than I would have liked, so we just went for 4 x 18m nets and Redwing song playing on an MP3 player.

The first round produced over 20 birds but no Redwing so we changed the call to Lesser Redpoll and put out another MP3 playing Goldfinch. Another couple of good rounds followed but then it died off quickly as the wind stiffened and the sun came out. We finished on 57 birds including 5 retraps and a control Lesser Redpoll. The species totals were (new/recapture): Long-tailed Tit 1/0, Goldcrest 2/0, Dunnock 0/1, Robin 0/1, Lesser Redpoll 21/1, Bullfinch 9/3, Chaffinch 2/0, Goldfinch 5/0, Greenfinch 5/0, Blackbird 6/0.

It was surprising to get 12 Bullfinch, particularly as they were all from the first net round.

Kev

Recent Recoveries

We get many recoveries of Barn Owls; more than any other species. Most are over the autumn/winter period, when birds born in the previous summer disperse, and unfortunately, usually fall foul of our roads and other perils. The poor breeding season this year may be reflected in the fact that not many Barn Owl recoveries seem to be coming in. Only two have been reported in the last few weeks:

• a bird ringed in the nest in Kirklington, Southwell, on 8 September was found dead in nearby Hockerton on 26 October, a road casualty
• another bird, ringed in July 2014 at Scarrington, fared a little better, and was controlled by ringers in Cheshire in August this year, at Buwardsley Hall Farm, not far from Crewe

A couple of passerines next:

• a Starling, which was ringed in June this year in Hucknall, was killed by a cat in the same area on 25 October
• a Blackcap, ringed at Holme Pierrepont on 6 September, was controlled by ringers at Titchfield Haven in Hampshire on 3 October

Then there's a recovery round-up regular: a Cormorant colour-ringed at Attenborough as a chick in May 2014, has been seen for the third time since it was ringed. Each time has been at various sites across South Yorkshire. It was seen this time at Orgreave Lakes on 9 May this year, and has previously been seen at Rother Valley Country Park, and Old Moor in Barnsley.

Finally, an odd recovery, in the form of a ring found in Bulwell, on 13 November. The ring was originally fitted to a Mute Swan in August 1983, in West Bridgford. As only the ring was found, it's a bit of a mystery what happened to the bird, so doesn't tell us much, but its an interesting record nonetheless.

Tom

Brackenhurst, Thursday 26 November

Ringer availability and a rare calm day allowed Kevin, Gary, Duncan & myself to set the nets at the Brack feeders and down in Orwin's on Thursday. Conditions were ideal, that is calm and overcast, but admittedly very mild. Basically, wintering birds are less hungry when it’s mild and therefore lose less weight overnight and visit the feeders less often. And so it proved with only nine birds caught at them. Orwin's produced 16 birds with half those being Redwings responding to the sound lure.

Highlights on a very slow morning were the first Blackcap ringed at Brackenhurst in winter time and the first Coal Tit for four years to the day. There were few birds about, but a skein of 150 Pink-footed Geese heading NW was good to see.

The species totals were (new/retrap) 25(16/9): Blackcap 1/0, Blue Tit 1/2, Chaffinch 2/0, Coal Tit 1/0, Dunnock 0/1, Goldcrest 0/1, Goldfinch 3/0, Great Tit 0/2, Redwing 8/0, Robin 0/3. The oldest retraps were a Robin from 2010 and a 2012 Great Tit.

Jim

Sutton Bonington, Sunday 22 November

Gary, Duncan, Alex and I held the second ringing session at this new site this morning in perfect mist-netting conditions: no wind and overcast with a slight frost. We tried a Redwing tape first thing again but that produced nothing so we switched to Goldfinch which was much better and we caught 24.

Catching was generally steady throughout but dropped a little when the sun broke through late morning. We finished on 80 birds including 17 retraps.

The species totals were (new/retrap): Long-tailed Tit 1/9, Wren 1/0, Great Tit 3/2, Blue Tit 14/4, Robin 2/2, Chaffinch 2/0, Goldfinch 24/0, Lesser Redpoll 5/0, Reed Bunting 1/0, Dunnock 4/0, Greenfinch 5/0, Blackbird 1/0. The retraps were all birds we caught on the first visit, including the Long-tailed Tit from Kingston.

There were a few Yellowhammers around and plenty of Fieldfare passing over.

Kev

Sutton Bonington, Sunday 8 November

Last winter we tried a new winter feeding site on Nottingham University land at Kingston on Soar, which started well but faded quickly and produced little in the way of farmland birds. Having discussed the failure with Mike Davies, the Universities farm manager, he suggested another site at Sutton Bonington which I had a look at with him in August and decided it was worth a try.

Two weeks ago Gary, Duncan and I set up the feeders and today we set nets for the first time. The morning started very calm after yesterday's strong winds but the forecast was for some rain and increasing wind. We tried a Redwing tape first thing and went fingers crossed for the first net round. The catch was ok and included a Redwing but otherwise mostly tits and no farmland birds!

The morning progressed and things got better until the rain started just after 9am which made us rush to the cars to hang the birds in to keep them dry and then close the nets, as the rain was heavy. We waited in the cars and when the rain stopped we opened the nets again, they had been closed for about an hour.

We took the nets down just after 11am as the wind increased and ended with a catch of 38. This included a single retrap, a Long-tailed Tit from Kingston last winter, a movement of under 2km.

The species totals were Long-tailed Tit 10, Wren 2, Great Tit 4, Blue Tit 7, Robin 2, Lesser Redpoll 6, Reed Bunting 3, Yellowhammer 1, Song thrush 1, Redwing 1, Grey Wagtail 1.

It was good to catch both Yellowhammer and Reed Bunting on this first visit and the Lesser Redpolls and Grey Wagtail added nice variety, the later in particular bringing a smile to Duncan’s face.

Kev

 Grey Wagtail (Gary Goddard)

Brackenhurst, Sunday 1 November

We got to Brackenhurst at 06:00am this morning in the dark and foggy gloom half expecting to see stragglers going home from the All Hallows celebrations. The autumnal mist hung around ‘til the middle of the day and the sun never really made it until we were packing up.

 

We had a steady catch through the morning of 55 birds with a nice mix of 14 species. Points of note were the high catch, for Orwin's, of eight Goldcrest, which is maybe linked to the high numbers migrating from the continent this autumn? Only two of the Great Tits were birds of the year; suggesting they’ve had a poor breeding season.

 

The species totals were (new/retrap) 55(41/14): Bullfinch 1/0, Blue Tit 5/2, Chaffinch 5/2, Dunnock 2/1, Fieldfare 1/0, Goldcrest 8/0, Great Spotted Woodpecker 0/2, Great Tit 2/6, Long-tailed Tit 9/1, Redwing 2/0, Robin 2/0, Song Thrush 1/0, Wren 2/0, Yellowhammer 1/0. The oldest retraps were  Blue Tit, Chaffinch and Great Tit (2) from winter 2012/13.

 

Jim

 

 Great Spotted Woodpecker & Fieldfare (A. Phillips)

Gibraltar Point

Kev, Duncan and I had been planning a return visit to Gibraltar Point Bird Observatory for some time and after keeping a close eye on the weather, the Gibraltar Point Blog and liaising with Mick Briggs, (ringer in charge), we hoped to take advantage of the influx of birds and go one day last week. Unfortunately strong winds on the day meant we had to cancel that visit. This was a pity as when we finally got there on Monday 19 October, we had missed the main passage of birds.

We arrived slightly later than planned and opened the nets in the Aylmer Avenue area at about 07:30. Catching started briskly but slowed down in the afternoon. We managed 92 new birds and 42 retraps giving us a respectable total of 134 birds for the day, so well worth the visit.

The best bird of the day for us was a Brambling, though George Gregory, a resident ringer ringing in the East Dunes, caught a Great Grey Shrike, a Skylark, and had a Merlin escape from the net!

Our totals for the day were - 33 Goldcrest, 3 Wren, a Chiffchaff, 3 Blackcap, 11 Robin, a Reed Bunting, 2 Chaffinch, a Brambling, 4 Blue Tit, 16 Greenfinch, 10 Redwing and 7 Blackbird; and 42 retraps: 3 Great Tit, 6 Robin, 2 Dunnock, 13 Goldcrest, a Long-tailed Tit, 3 Wren, 2 Goldfinch, 2 Chaffinch, 5 Blue Tit, a Blackbird, 3 Greenfinch and a Coal Tit.

Mick P

 Duncan checking the nets around the feeding station. 

 Kev, multitasking- bring birds back and delivering newspapers.

 Brambling (pics by Mick P.)

Recent Recoveries

A good number of recoveries have come in during the last month, some of which are quite decent, and passerines are well represented too!

Firstly with the Barn Owls -

Four of our birds have been controlled by other ringers:

- a bird ringed in Lambley in June 2011, was controlled near Westwoodside in North Lincs on 19 June
- a bird ringed in Upper Broughton in September 2014 was controlled in Old Dalby, Leics on the 4 July
- another was controlled near Burrough Hill in Leics on 8 August, originally ringed by the group on 14 June last year
- and a bird ringed in Muston, Leics in June 2014 was controlled in Ewerby, Lincs on 29 September

Another two have been recovered, both found dead. One was found freshly dead in a cattle trough in Bottesford on 5 October and had originally been ringed at the nest in nearby Elton on 6 July. Another was found freshly dead in a horse trough at Scotter Equestrian Centre, near Gainsborough, Lincs on 29 September. It had originally been ringed as a chick over 7 years previously, in August 2008, in Lambley. Aside from road casualties, it seems that death by drowning on farms in various livestock drinking troughs is a common cause of death for these birds, I wonder how they end up 'in the drink'?

Finally, we controlled a bird in Flintham on 1 September. This bird had originally been ringed at the nest in Thrussington, Leics in June last year.

And onto the non-owl recoveries...

Firstly, a Lapwing, a bird we don't see much on these reports, was seen in the field at Attenborough on 22 August this year. The observer managed to read most of the ring, and it was enough to find out that it was ringed by Birklands Ringing Group as a chick, in June 2008 up near Mansfield Woodhouse.

Next up is a Sand Martin, one of the youngsters from the Attenborough nest box project, which may be the first recovered overseas. It was controlled in Lentilles, in the east of France, on the 23 August, after being ringed on 19 June.

Two Goldfinch have been recovered, both ringed on 19 September this year in Gary's garden in the Meadows, Nottingham. The first was taken by a cat a few streets away, 15 days later. The second was found sick nearby the next day having probably hit a window.

A Garden warbler, ringed at Home Pierrepont on 11 July this year, was controlled at Brook Priory, Rutland on 31 July. Whilst another Garden Warbler, ringed on 22 August, hit a window in Sarzeau, on the west coast of France. This was only 17 days after it was ringed up here in Nottinghamshire, showing that it was probably already on its way south when we caught it. Sad that it didnt get any further, but it is one of many perils these birds face on migration.

Finally, to round up this bumper recovery report, A Blackcap, ringed in June 2014 at Bestwood, was controlled by ringers in June this year in Catterick, near Richmond, North Yorkshire.

Tom

Holme Pierrepont, Sunday 4 October

Gary, Duncan, Alex and I made what will probably be the final visit of the season to the Grange end of Holme Pierrepont today. The weather was calm and generally overcast. We erected 13 nets and had two warbler recordings playing. Catching was quite steady with a rush mid-morning.

It was good to find that not all the warblers have gone yet as we ended on 61 birds including 13 retraps. The species totals were (new/retrap): Kingfisher 1/0, Dunnock 4/0, Robin 4/4, Wren 1/0, Blackbird 1/1, Song Thrush 1/0, Blackcap 5/0, Chiffchaff 7/0, Reed Warbler 2/0, Sedge Warbler 1/0, Cetti’s Warbler 0/1, Goldcrest 1/0, Blue Tit 6/0, Long-tailed Tit 10/6, Treecreeper 0/1, Lesser Redpoll 1/0, Reed Bunting 3/0.

The oldest retrap was a Robin that was ringed in 2013. Nice to catch a Kingfisher and a Lesser Redpoll to close the season off.

Kev

 Kingfisher, Goldcrest and Lesser Redpoll (Alex Phillips)

Recent Recoveries

A couple of local Barn Owl recoveries kick off the most recent round of recoveries for the group:

• a bird ringed in the nest in July this year in Plungar, was found dead in September in nearby Sutton-cum-Granby
• a bird ringed as a chick in Tollerton in July 2007, was found dead on the road in Gamston, also in September this year (maybe this bird stayed local for 8 years?)

In other owl news, a Tawny Owl ringed in May this year in Netherfield, was found dead over the river in nearby Shelford at the end of August. (The bird was identified as a Hen Harrier, which would have been interesting, but I don't think many breed in nest-boxes in Netherfield...)

Two birds ringed at Attenborough on 23 April this year have been recovered. One was a Grey Heron, which was found in nearby Borrowash, with an injured wing and leg. The other was a Cormorant, which travelled a little further, being found at Cley in Norfolk where its colour rings were read in the field.

And finally, a Common Tern, also ringed in the nest at Attenborough, was seen at Cropston reservoir in Leicestershire in August. The observer managed to read the metal ring, which is great, especially as the bird was ringed 14 years ago. This is the second Common Tern from Attenborough recovered this year which had been ringed over a decade ago, showing the importance of long term monitoring schemes such as ours at the reserve.

Tom

Holme Pierrepont, Sunday 20 September

Gary, Duncan, Sue, Tom and I made the final visit of the season to the Blotts/A52 end of Holme Pierrepont today. The weather was calm and occasionally sunny. We erected 10 nets and had two warbler recordings playing. Catching was fairly brisk first thing but tapered off as usual as the morning progressed.

We ended on 69 birds including 5 retraps. The species totals were (new/retrap) Dunnock 2/0, Robin 5/1, Wren 1/1, Blackbird 2/0, Song Thrush 2/0, Blackcap 23/0, Chiffchaff 11/1, Goldcrest 3/0, Blue Tit 3/0, Great Tit 1/0, Long-tailed Tit 0/1, Chaffinch 1/0, Goldfinch 7/1, Reed Bunting 3/0.

The oldest retrap was the Long-tailed Tit that was ringed as a juvenile in 2013. It really does look like summer is over as only Blackcaps and Chiffchaffs were caught and a regular birdwatcher at the site said that he had not seen any other warblers there since the previous Thursday.

Kev

 young male Blackcap in body moult (T. Shields)