Sutton Bonington, Saturday 25 November

After a delayed start this morning due to the heavy sleet shower (which the various weather forecasts had failed to predict) we eventually started to set nets at about 0715. It was a bit breezy and a few occasional bits of drizzle did not help but we were still left wondering, where have all the birds gone?

Maria, Kirsten, Duncan, Gary and I set just the feeder nets and caught far more leaves than birds, though not sure why after a good catch last week. There seemed far less movement of birds generally, even the seemingly ever-present Buzzard did not put in an appearance until we were leaving!

We ended with a catch of just 17 including 5 retraps. The catch was made up of (new/retrap): Great Spotted Woodpecker 0/1, Fieldfare 1/0, Redwing 4/0, Dunnock 1/0, Blue Tit 2/1, Great Tit 2/0, Chaffinch 2/3. The oldest retrap was a Chaffinch from 2016.

Kev

 Fieldfare (K. Hemsley)

Sutton Bonington, Sunday 19 November

A glorious, still and frosty morning dawned as we met at Sutton Bonington. Bit of a strange start as Kirsten had trouble locating us and once the gate was open Alex could not get his car to start, so we had to push it on to the campus! Maria, Alex, Sue, Kirsten, Gary and I, along with two guests set 2 extra nets near the pheasant feeder along with the 3 small nets at our feeders.

Things started a little slowly but picked up after the first round and we were pleased to get the first two Yellowhammers of the season plus a Brambling and a couple of Lesser Redpoll.

A few leaves started to fall into the nets as a slight breeze got up towards midday but nothing to interfere with catching. We ended with a catch of 50 including 20 retraps. The catch was made up of (new/retrap): Great Spotted Woodpecker 0/1, Blackbird 1/0, Robin 0/2, Dunnock 3/1, Blue Tit 5/8, Great Tit 1/3, Long-tailed Tit 1/2, Goldcrest 0/1, Chaffinch 12/2, Lesser Redpoll 2/0, Goldfinch 1/0, Brambling 2/0, House Sparrow 1/0, Yellowhammer 2/0.

The oldest retraps were from 2015. There were good numbers of Chaffinch and a few Yellowhammer around again but no winter thrushes were seen or heard.

Kev

 (photos by S. Lakeman)

Lesser Redpoll & Brambling (K. Hemsley)

Brackenhurst, Sunday 19 November

We made our second visit of the season to Brackenhurst today and set up the usual nets at the feeders and Orwin's. We were Duncan, Tom, myself and new ringer, Brendan Noone. The weather was mostly still, but there was a frost in Orwin's which hung on for most of the morning. Over the session we handled 44 birds of 11 species. Catching was steady until 11:00 am.

The most interesting retraps were:-

Robin – two from 2015. Both prefer their own territories, staying put in Orwin's & the feeding site respectively.

Great Tit – the oldest bird was originally ringed in 2012. It's been caught 15 times and seven of those were in November. There do seem to be patterns with resident Brackenhurst birds, with some using the feeders early and others late winter. I suspect over the winter food is most important initially and then towards spring being on a territory starts to supersede this.

Chaffinch – another old male, this time from 2012 and not caught between times.

Totals: 44 birds processed (21 new/23 retrap), comprising:  Greater Spotted Woodpecker 1/1, Dunnock 2/4, Robin 0/3, Blackbird 2/1, Redwing 5/0, Goldcrest 1/1, Blue Tit 1/5, Great Tit 1/6, House Sparrow 1 (pit-tagged), Chaffinch 5/2, Yellowhammer 2/0.

Jim

 Great-spotted Woodpecker (T. Shields)

Sutton Bonington, Sunday 12 November

The various weather forecasts tried hard to ruin our visit this week. On Thursday it was going to be calm and dry on Saturday, very windy on Sunday, so I decided to go for Saturday. On Friday morning it was going to rain on Saturday, still windy on Sunday. By Friday early evening it was still going to be raining on Saturday so I cancelled and moved the session to the Sunday despite the windy forecast. When Saturday dawned it was dry, still and overcast, perfect for mist netting, the rain had not materialised. So on Sunday, Maria, Issie, Duncan, Gary and I met at an already breezy site and put up the 3 small nets in the new rides. Then the wind seemed to drop despite the forecast saying it would steadily increase! The wind did start to pick up by the middle of the morning and the nets then filled with leaves.

We did manage a decent catch of 40 including 15 retraps. The catch was made up of (new/retrap): Great Spotted Woodpecker 1/1, Blackbird 2/0, Robin 1/0, Dunnock 2/0, Blue Tit 6/6, Great Tit 1/2, Long-tailed Tit 4/4, Goldcrest 2/0, Chaffinch 6/2. The oldest retraps were from 2015. There were a few Yellowhammer around again but they are not interested in the seed yet.

Kev

 Great Spotted Woodpecker (K. Hemsley)

Brackenhurst - Sunday 5 November

Remember, remember... to have the first ringing session of the season at the Brackenhurst feeders today. We weren't really expecting fireworks, but first visits are always a little bit more exciting as you're not sure what’s about or how productive the birds have been over the summer.

Anyway, Mick, myself and, new to the group, Hanna Janiszewska, put up the usual nets at the feeders and Orwin's and over the morning we handled 57 birds of 11 species, which is pretty good for this time of year.

Surprisingly, Chaffinches accounted for 1 in 3 of the birds processed. One was a retrap from 2009, and ringed in the same month eight years ago! However, joy was mixed with sadness as the bird’s legs were badly diseased with a FPV-type infection.

All the tit retraps were adults (11) and all the new birds were juveniles (7), highlighting their site fidelity. The sound lure (til the battery died) brought in four Redwings to Orwin’s. They really like the Lithuanian song this side of Christmas.

Half the overall catch was in the first net round. All ‘n all a decent start to a winter's ringing at Brack.

Species totals were as follows: total captures: 57 (42 new/15 retrap); Dunnock 5/0, Robin 2/0, Blackbird 2/0, Redwing 4/0, Goldcrest 2/0, Long-tailed Tit 0/1, Blue Tit 4/4, Great Tit 3/7, Treecreeper 1/0, House Sparrow 4/0, Chaffinch 15/3.

The oldest retrap was the chaffinch mentioned above (and another from 2014), but there were also Great Tits from 2013 & 2014 and Long-tailed Tit ringed 2014.

Jim

Sutton Bonington, Sunday 5 November

Trish, Jake, Gary and I made the first visit of the winter to the feeding site today. We put up 3 small nets in the new rides we cut when we baited the newly-sited feeders a couple of weeks ago. We made the first round and one of the first birds out was a Chaffinch with scaly legs. Chaffinch at this site seem to be suffering greatly from this condition, thankfully the rest we caught during the morning were clear. Then the rain started for half an hour or so before the sun came out and a Jay found its way into a net. We ended with a small catch of 25 including 2 retraps which we considered OK for a first attempt in the new location. The catch was made up of (new/retrap): Jay 1/0, Song Thrush 1/0, Blue Tit 7/1, Great Tit 4/1, Long-tailed Tit 4/0, Chaffinch 4/0, Goldfinch 1/0. The oldest retrap was a Blue Tit from 2015. A few Fieldfare passed overhead and there were a few Yellowhammer around.

Kev

Jay (K. Hemsley)

2016 Report

The 2016 ringing report is now out! If you would like a copy, please email the address at the top of the 'Reports' page - see tab at the top.

Sibthorpe, Monday 30 October

It has been two months since I last ringed in my garden in Sibthorpe, and the calm forecast and a free day encouraged me to have a go. In the event, I was pleased I did as I handled 120 birds of which 108 were new; its a long time since I ringed 100 passerines in a day.

House Sparrows (‘spuggies’) dominated the catch accounting for just over half the birds (69). Next was Goldfinch (16), but I suspect they are local birds and their migrant cousins have not yet appeared. Several of both species were still in post-juvenile moult, which is not that surprising as they have multiple broods and tend to breed late.

Species totals (new/retrap): Wren 1/0, Dunnock 5/1, Robin 1/0, Blackbird 1/0, Goldcrest 1/0, Long-tailed Tit 14/0, Blue Tit 7/0, Great Tit 4/0, House Sparrow 60/9, Goldfinch 14/2. The oldest retrap was a spuggie ringed on Christmas day 2015.

Jim

Ramsdale Park Golf Course, Monday 16 October

Jim, Gary and I made a visit to Ramsdale and set the usual line of 8 x 18m nets on an overcast and still morning. It started to rain a little on and off for the first half of the session but it never amounted to much. The strangest thing about the weather was the much reported red sky, a strange atmosphere to ring in but it did not stop the birds finding the nets and with 2 MP3s playing most of the birds were attracted to them.

We were hoping the calm before storm Ophelia arrived would be long enough to allow a full morning session and we were pleased to find the Met Office were a little out on their timings for the wind picking up. We took down just before lunch as the breeze started throwing leaves into the nets.

We ended with a catch which was steady throughout the morning. Ten Redwings were nice as few had been reported so far this month with the winds being predominantly from the west. We ended with a total catch 64 including 11 retraps, made up of (new/retrap): Blackbird 5/1, Song Thrush 1/0, Redwing 10/0, Wren 3/0, Dunnock 4/0, Robin 2/1, Blackcap 2/0, Goldcrest 6/0, Blue Tit 8/3, Great Tit 4/0, Long-tailed Tit 3/1, Bullfinch 2/5, Lesser Redpoll 2/0, Greenfinch 1/0. The oldest retrap was from 2015.

Kev

Holme Pierrepont, Sunday 9 October

The plan today was to put up the nets at the site for the last time this year, hopefully catch a few birds and then remove all the poles/guys etc. We ended with the biggest team of the year out and more birds than we expected. Tom, Duncan, Sue, Trish, Jake, Gary and I were joined by Maria and Kate who were out for the first time with the group. We set all the usual nets on a calm but clear morning. We had two MP3 players playing warbler calls. 

 

The catching rate was steady throughout with a little flurry at the end when a few Long-tailed Tits appeared with their usual ‘friends’. The migrant warblers have all gone apart from Blackcap and Chiffchaff, but it was nice to catch 3 Cetti’s Warblers. 

 

We ended with a total catch of 46 including 8 retraps, made up of (new/retrap): Song Thrush 1/0, Blackbird 1/0, Wren 7/1, Dunnock 5/2, Robin 2/0, Blackcap 5/0, Chiffchaff 4/0, Cetti’s Warbler 3/0, Goldcrest 3/2, Blue Tit 2/0, Long-tailed Tit 1/2, Bullfinch 1/1, Reed Bunting 3/0. 

 

The retraps were all recently ringed birds. Overhead were Buzzard and Sparrowhawk, but no winter thrush movement was noted.

 

Kev

 

Holme Pierrepont, Sunday 10 September

Alex, Tom, Duncan and I held a ringing session at the Grange end of Holme Pierrepont. I did not expect a big catch and the Blotts end would probably have produced more - but after the recent car crimes at that end this was considered a safer bet. It was a cool, clear and a little breezy to start but cloud soon rolled in. We put up 11 nets and had two MP3 players going. Catching rate was slow to start and never really picked up, but the breeze did pick up so we took down a little early.

We ended with a total catch of 32 including 5 retraps, made up of (new/retrap): Kingfisher 1/0, Wren 1/2, Dunnock 1/0, Robin 3/2, Reed Warbler 3/0, Blackcap 8/0, Chiffchaff 2/0, Goldcrest 3/1, Great Tit 3/0, Reed Bunting 2/0. The oldest retrap was a Robin from 2015. Overhead were lots of House Martins and a couple of Swifts were seen about 3 times.

Kev

 Kingfisher (A. Phillips)

Ramsdale Park Golf Centre, Thursday 7 September

Duncan, Mick and I made a visit to Ramsdale and set the usual line of 8 x 18m nets and another small line of a 12m and 9m net on an overcast and still morning. The site sounded quiet again and with many of the warblers gone from Holme Pierrepont last weekend we were hoping the small line with Linnet playing on an MP3 would help increase the expected low catch. We had two more MP3s playing warbler calls along the main net line.

We ended up being surprised by the catch which was steady throughout the morning, despite not catching any Linnets! A Jay added a bit of interest early on and a Reed Bunting was a first for the site but the main surprise was the total number of birds, particularly Blackcap and Bullfinch. We ended with a total catch of exactly 100 including 10 retraps, made up of (new/retrap): Jay 1/0, Blackbird 2/0, Song Thrush 1/0, Wren 1/0, Robin 1/0, Blackcap 24/1, Whitethroat 2/1, Chiffchaff 11/0, Blue Tit 5/0, Great Tit 2/0, Long-tailed Tit 14/4, Bullfinch 14/4, Goldfinch 8/0, Greenfinch 3/0, Reed Bunting 1/0. The oldest retrap was from 2015.

Kev

Recent Recoveries

A number of Barn owl recoveries have come in, following the annual rounds of the nest boxes. Firstly, the more notable ones:

- A bird ringed in Scredington in June 2006 has been controlled in Eaton, Leics, exactly 4000 days after it was ringed.
- A bird ringed at Stathern in 2016 has been controlled further east, near Spalding in July this year.
- A bird originally captured near Salisbury Plain in August 2012, was controlled by the group at a Box at Hawton in May 2016.

And other short-term, more local recoveries:
- A bird ringed as a youngster in Hoveringham in 2014 was controlled at Hawton in June this year.
- A bird ringed as a youngster in Morton in 2016 was controlled at Kneeton in June this year.
- A bird ringed by Birklands RG as a youngster at the Newark Sewage Treatment works in 2014 was controlled at Kirklington in June this year.
- A Rushcliffe Barn Owl Project bird, ringed as a youngster in Keyworth in 2016 was controlled at Widmerpool in June this year.
- A bird ringed as a youngster in Old Dalby in 2016 was controlled at Stathern in May this year.
- A bird ringed as a youngster in Girton in 2016 was controlled at a nearby Box in the same area in June this year.
- A Rushcliffe Barn owl project bird, ringed as a youngster in Hickling in 2016, was controlled at Colston Bassett in June this year.
- Another Rushcliffe Barn owl project bird, ringed as a youngster in Bunny in 2016 was controlled at Stathern in May this year.
- And finally, a bird ringed as a youngster in Normanton in 2016 was found injured by a member of the public in Stamford in August, its fate is unknown.

In other news...

A Kestrel, ringed in Old Dalby as a youngster, has been controlled as an adult at a box near Halam in June this year.

An Attenborough-born Common Tern, ringed in 2011, was seen at Seaforth NR, Merseyside in July this year, having had its ring read in the field.

A Woodpigeon, a bird not ringed in numbers by the group, has been found dead on the roads near Findern, Derby in August. It had originally been ringed in Toton in September 2016

A Sand Martin controlled at the Attenborough colony in July this year had originally been ringed at Redhill Marina by Ratcliffe-on-Soar in 2014.

A Blackcap ringed at Holme Pierrepont in 2015 has been controlled in North Notts, being captured at a site near Cottam in June.

One of the group's Pied Flycatchers, from the nestbox project in Wales, has been controlled at a Box in Shropshire in May this year. It had originally been ringed as a chick in 2016.

One of the many juvenile Starlings ringed in the Meadows in the spring of 2015 was found dying in nearby Wilford in August this year.

And finally a bit of good news - the group has claimed the Goldfinch longevity record, for one of its birds ringed on 23rd May 2007. Unfortunately this bird was found dead, but had travelled down to Devon, where it was picked up and reported in Barnstaple. This is 10 years and 3 months after it was initially ringed in Bingham by old group member John Black (as an age 5 - so it would have been around 11 years old).

It beats the previous record set at the end of last year in Suffolk by just under 3 months (though that bird was controlled so could still be going strong!).

The previous top 3 looked like this:

V451151 First-year Male 28-12-2006 Chelmondiston: 51°59'N 1°12'E (Suffolk)
Caught by ringer 30-12-2016 Chelmondiston: 51°59'N 1°12'E (Suffolk) 0km 10y 0m 2d

N855368 First-year Female 13-03-2002 Parkhead, Sheffield: 53°20'N 1°32'W (South Yorkshire)
Freshly dead 23-06-2010 Sheffield: 53°23'N 1°30'W (South Yorkshire) 8km NNE 8y 3m 10d

T971203 First-year Male 30-11-2005 East Grinstead: 51°6'N 0°0'W (West Sussex)
Freshly dead (injury) 24-01-2014 East Grinstead: c. 51°7'N 0°0'W (West Sussex) 0km 8y 1m 25d

Tom

Holme Pierrepont, Sunday 3 September

Duncan, Trish, Jake, Sue, Gary and I went to the Blott’s end of Holme Pierrepont today. An overcast but still start looked promising but the forecast was for a freshening wind as the morning went on and it did get breezy by the time we finished. Two MP3 players were going but the site seemed quiet after the last few weeks of good catches. We started slowly and it never really picked up. The best bird was certainly a juvenile Grasshopper Warbler that found its way into the top shelf of a four shelf net. This is the first Grasshopper Warbler the group has caught since 2014 and the first at Holme Pierrepont since 2011. When we do catch them it is usually adults in the first half of the summer, the last juvenile we had was in 1996.

We ended with a total catch of 46 including 11 retraps, made up of (new/retrap): Dunnock 1/0, Robin 1/0, Blackcap 14/1, Whitethroat 2/0, Lesser Whitethroat 1/0, Grasshopper Warbler 1/0, Chiffchaff 3/0, Reed Warbler 1/0, Sedge Warbler 1/0, Blue Tit 0/1, Great Tit 4/0, Long-tailed Tit 3/6, Treecreeper 1/0, Bullfinch 2/2, Reed Bunting 0/1. The oldest retrap was Bullfinch from 2014.

Overhead were plenty of House Martins and a Hobby put on a good show all morning including a fly past just above our heads when we were at the base.

Unfortunately the morning was spoilt by an idiot who thought his needs were greater than anyone else’s. Jake arrived a little after the rest of us and parked his Ford Ka in one of the parking bays just outside the Skylarks gate. At about 10.00 am a man came to find us as he had just witnessed a youth in a black hoodie smashing the window of the Ka and taking something from it. It turned out he had taken a cheap and old sat nav worth next to nothing. Jake knows he should not have left it on show but it was too late by then. Several members of the public were extremely helpful in coming to find us, watching the car when another was looking for us and calling the police and getting a crime number. We would like to thank them for their actions. Jake called the police again when he got to his car but despite one of the members of the public having just seen the culprit further down the lane, and had a description, the police did not really seem interested. There were another 3 cars parked in the bays with Jake’s but his was the only one damaged, perhaps the others would have been targeted if the culprit had not been disturbed.

Kev

Dawn, Sedge Warbler and Grasshopper Warbler (S. Lakeman)

Holme Pierrepont, Friday 1 September

Jim, Gary and I held a ringing session at the Grange end of Holme Pierrepont having had a good catch there the previous week. It was a calm and clear morning with a heavy dew making us all wish we had put our over trousers on! We put up the same nets as last week and had three MP3 players going. Catching started quietly and dropped as the sun got higher. Warblers dominated again but not in the same numbers as the last visit and we ended with a total catch of 40 including 7 retraps, made up of (new/retrap): Kingfisher 1/0, Blackbird 2/0, Song Thrush 1/0, Wren 1/1, Dunnock 3/0, Robin 1/2, Reed Warbler 4/2, Sedge Warbler 1/0, Blackcap 10/1, Chiffchaff 3/0, Bullfinch 5/1, Reed Bunting 1/0. The oldest retrap was a Robin from 2014. Overhead were a few Swallows and up to four Buzzards.

Kev