2018 Report

The 2018 ringing report is now available. If you would like a copy, please email the address at the top of the 'Reports' page - see tab at the top.

Photogenic Heron

Ringed at Attenborough NR as a chick on 23 April 2015, Grey Heron 'JH' (ring 1509503) has now been posing for Keith Walkling's camera trap at Weldon near Corby since 2017. The most recent picture below was on 3 April this year. Thanks for the photo and the sightings Keith!

Jim

Sutton Bonington, January-March 2019

I think disappointing would best sum up the last three months at Sutton Bonington. Lots of effort, lots of seed used, but few birds caught. We could blame part of it on the weather, far too mild, often breezy and sometimes wet but the main concern was the enormous amount of seed used with few small birds coming in to the feeders when we were there. We have put this down to squirrels and/or corvids rifling through the seed at the feeders, scattering most on to the floor and this being ‘hoovered’ up by the many pheasant, partridge, duck, pigeons and even more corvids. We have a plan to combat this next winter but with little to show from the last couple of visits we closed the site down on 24 March. The teams during this period comprised Gary, Mick T, Duncan, Alex, Tom, Alice, Ellen, Iona, Sarah, Sophie, me and a visit by Nabegh on 20 January.

We did have a few good birds sighted on our visits including Red Kites a couple of times including one that landed in the field only a few metres from where we were sitting.

The meagre totals were 198 including 89 retraps, made up of (new/retrap): Great Spotted Woodpecker 2/0, Woodpigeon 1/0, Carrion Crow 1/0, Jackdaw 1/0, Redwing 1/0, Blackbird 7/3, Robin 8/8, Meadow Pipit 1/0, Dunnock 4/3, Coal Tit 0/2, Blue Tit 11/31, Great Tit 4/6, Long-tailed Tit 7/6, Chaffinch 14/6, Greenfinch 9/1, Linnet 1/0, Lesser Redpoll 3/0, House Sparrow 1/0, Reed Bunting 16/9, Yellowhammer 17/16. The oldest retraps were from 2016.

Kev

Brackenhurst, Saturday 30 March

What with the time of year, calm weather and cold nights, my hopes were high for handling a decent number of Yellowhammers, and so it proved! It was a steady stream of birds and we processed 86 individuals of six species, including 70 Yellowhammers!

Our team of Cliff, Issie and myself set nets at the feeders and in Orwin's. The oldest Yellowhammers were from 2016 (3) and 2015 (1). As previously these older birds turn up later in the day and in early spring when presumably they’re on or near their breeding territories.

Birds of note away from the nets were 20+ Fieldfare and a Blackcap singing in his usual spot in the blackthorn blossom.

Species totals were (new/retrap) 50/36, total 86: Chiffchaff 3/1, Goldcrest 1/1, Great Tit 2/4, Dunnock 1/0, Reed Bunting 1/2, Yellowhammer 43/27.

Below, see photo of Yellowhammer & Chiffchaff for size comparison!

Jim

Yellowhammer & Chiffchaff (Issie Connell)

Pellet recovery

Whilst ringing at Bestwood the other day a photographer gave me a ring he had recovered from a pellet he had found on site. There were several pellets beneath the fence post, they were quite large, didn't appear too old and there was lots of white streaking down the post, which led him to think that it was the work of a Barn Owl.

Reporting the ring via DemOn revealed that the ring was from a Blackbird, ringed at Bestwood Country Park, 6km away on 11 November 2017.

The photographer did return that evening to see if the predator returned to that post but nothing appeared whilst he was there. I guess we will both check out that post from time to time now.

Mick P

Brackenhurst, Sunday 24 March

Finally, a calm day for mist-netting at the Brackenhurst feeders. Our team comprised visiting ringers Andy & Liz Scott, Vicki, Lewis and me. A bright morning which went from frosty to sunny, and calm to breezy. The latter in the north-west which affected the nets and we finished before midday. Birds of note away from the nets were Chiffchaff and Fieldfare.

Species totals were (new/retrap) 28/11, total 39: Goldcrest 0/1, Great Tit 2/2, Robin 3/1, Dunnock 1/0, Treecreeper 2/1, Reed Bunting 2/0, Yellowhammer 18/6. Retraps were all from last two years.

In other news, we handled our 2000th Yellowhammer since we started ringing here in 2008. This valuable long-term dataset is used annually by students in their statistics module. One result from their analyses is that older Yellowhammers are more likely to be found at the feeding station later in the morning; perhaps because they’re more experienced and know where their local McDonalds is?

Below is a fine example of fault bars in a Yellowhammers tail. It will have experienced food/temperature stress in the nest, and this is a sure indication its one of last year's juveniles.

Jim

Newark area, Saturday 23 March

Saturday was my fifth and first successful try at catching an adult Long-eared Owl (LEO). I went out at dusk – with visiting ringers Liz & Andy Scott – and set a large mesh net next to a stream & hedgerow, and once it was dark played their calls and that of a squeaking mouse. After an hour and a half (and we were about to pack up) we found this fine adult male LEO in the net. It was ringed, biometrics taken, and released in to the night.

LEOs are poorly understood as they are unobtrusive and not as easy to find as other owls. They move between the UK and other parts of north-western Europe. However, very few are ringed (<100 in the UK in 2017). Hopefully, this is just the first as we try to learn more about this stunning and secretive owl.

Jim

Sibthorpe, Sunday 24 February

The prospect of watching the mighty Hatters live on Sky at midday meant it made more sense to ring here in Sibthorpe. Issie, Vicki and I put up four nets in ours and a neighbour's garden. The morning was calm and foggy, and then sunny. Altogether pleasant ringing, and we handled 56 individual birds, before the kick-off intervened.

It was not just the weather that contrasted sharply with the session Pete and I had had the previous Thursday, but also the mix of species caught with lots more finches evident rather than House Sparrows. It was nice to ring a few Greenfinches for a change. See the wing and tail images below which clearly show the difference between first winter and adult male Greenfinches.

Species totals 42/14 (new/retrap), total 56: Woodpigeon 1/0, Blackbird 2/1, House Sparrow 12/4, Blue Tit 2/0, Great Tit 0/1, Dunnock 0/2, Robin 2/1, Chaffinch 2/0, Greenfinch 8/3, Goldfinch 11/2, Starling 2/0. Oldest retraps were a Great Tit and House Sparrow from early 2016.

Jim

 First year male (left) and adult male (right) Greenfinches.

Sibthorpe, Thursday 21 February

Jim and I spent a very enjoyable morning in the sunshine today with Skylarks singing overhead and the world feeling like it's ready to wake up again.

We put up four nets - two in Jim's garden and two in a neighbour's and caught 41 birds over the morning - which was more than we'd expected. The majority were House Sparrows and interestingly, the majority of those were retraps. I've always found that garden sparrows are quick to learn about nets and rarely get themselves caught again, but not today! Having several known-age birds allowed us to test some ageing criteria on the male birds (from Laurent Demongin's book). With a bit of practice, it seems as if at least some birds won't have to remain 2s or 4s now.

There were few finches around and Chaffinches in particular were notably absent - something that's been very obvious in the Vale of Belvoir lately as well. Is it the mild weather? Or are there far fewer around?

Of our 41 birds, 17 were new and 24 were retraps. This broke down as follows (new/retrap): Dunnock 1/1, House Sparrow 7/18, Robin 2/2, Great Tit 2/1, Blue Tit 1/1, Goldfinch 2/1, Wren 2/0.

Pete

 Goldfinch (Pete Leonard)

Colwick Garden Ringing

We bought our house in Colwick in summer 2017, with the garden being one of the main reasons for our choice as it was mature, well looked after and had some good ringing potential. Feeding birds started right away and over the winter decent numbers of Chaffinch and Goldfinch as well as smaller numbers of other common garden species were soon eating us out of house and home. We also got some interesting species including numerous Blackcaps, several Brambling, Siskin and woodpeckers.

Fast forward to this summer when I obtained my endorsement to mist net in the garden. Since August I've been steadily catching small numbers of birds, as and when I get the chance. I've only managed an hour or two here and there due to other commitments, but it has been enough to catch a decent sample so far and hopefully as the winter goes on I'll start to catch a greater variety of birds.

So far it has been pretty Goldfinch-heavy, but this has included a control from Berkshire. The House Sparrows that haven't been seen since April are back for the winter and I finally caught one on my last session, and I've managed one Blackcap so far, but I haven't seen any others this winter yet.

The obligatory totals so far are as follows: 174 total (147 new/27 Retrap) - Goldfinch (90/6), Blue Tit (18/15), Long-tailed Tit (11/3), Great Tit (12/1), Coal Tit (5/2), 4 Chaffinch, 3 Dunnock, 2 Blackbird, 1 Robin, 1 Greenfinch, 1 Blackcap, 1 Goldcrest and 1 House Sparrow.

Tom

Control Goldfinch, Blackcap and net set up (T. Shields)

Brackenhurst, Sunday 30 December

The prolonged mild weather continued as Jim, Cliff, Tom & I met on a still, partially overcast morning. Birds were around, but fairly reluctant to come to bait or sound lures so we had a relaxing morning, brightened up with some festive refreshment.

Gangs of finches, buntings and thrushes teased us all morning and small flocks of tits and Goldcrests were in the hedgerows, but most steered clear of the nets. And with the exception of one round that produced a decent flock of Yellowhammers, we were catching birds in ones and twos.

We finished on 19 (12 new, 7 retrap) as follows: Blue Tit 1/1, Great Tit 4/3, Yellowhammer 7/1, Reed Bunting 0/2.

Other birds around included Kestrel and Sparrowhawk, Green Woodpecker, a single Woodcock flushed and 2 Golden Plover overhead. A number of birds were in song, presumably due to the mild weather.

Happy New Year to all!

Pete

Brackenhurst, Friday 23 November

Already passed in to history, but Kev, Lewis and I had a decent morning’s ringing at Brack a month ago. Weather was good and we had unusually high numbers of birds in the nets for that time of year.

Highlights included:
- Probably our highest ever November total for Yellowhammer (30 processed). Hard to say why as some years we only handle >10 before Xmas.
- House Sparrow – often get a few prior to the turn of the year, but nine is a lot. We're guessing they come from the farm two fields away.
- Chaffinch – most of the males had wings >90 mm wing length. So most likely wintering migrants from Scandinavia?

Species totals (new/retrap) 66/19, total 85: Blackbird 3/0, Redwing 1/0, House Sparrow 9/0, Blue Tit 5/2, Great Tit 1/2, Long-tailed Tit 7/2, Dunnock 2/4, Robin 0/1, Chaffinch 15/1, Yellowhammer 23/7.

Oldest retraps were Blue Tit (2014), Great Tit (2015) and Yellowhammer (2016).

Jim

Toton, Christmas Eve

A perfect day for mist-netting was forecast for today so I was thinking about a trip to the golf club to try for some Redwing but unfortunately nobody was available. So I decided to try in the garden, most of you will know that I do very little ringing in the garden but recently Sparrowhawks have been using the birds on our feeders as their own local takeaway, so I thought perhaps if I caught them they might think again before returning!

The forecast turned out to be correct with not a breath of wind so before light I opened the net – tried unsuccessfully with an mp3 lure to bring Redwing in – and caught a few of the expected garden birds. Then a Blue Tit went in the net and just as I was thinking of going to get it out a blur from the left streaked in heading straight for the Blue Tit, veered off at the last minute and sat on top of the net pole. After cursing and stopping in my tracks the bird took off dropped round the back of the net and headed for the Blue Tit again, this time it went into the net and after swiftly getting out to the net I extracted this little lady:

Thanks to Christine for taking the pictures.

Oh, and the Blue Tit, a retrap from last winter, thankfully escaped the close attention of the Sparrowhawk unscathed.......and so did my fingers.

Happy Christmas to all.

Kev

SNRG on tour... Long-eared Owls in Scotland

And it gets better! Later on Ewan caught two Long-eared Owls in the garden and used UV light to help age them - different ages of feathers reflecting the light in different ways.

Jim

SNRG on tour... Short-eared Owl in Scotland

I've not managed to ring much during last few weeks, but I did get out onto the Ythan estuary grasslands three weeks ago when up in Scotland. We were targeting Long and Short-eared Owls and although several LEOs checked out the net, we didn't catch any. However, we did manage a single SEO. We were using large mesh net with both owl and mouse calls to attract the birds. Barn Owls are regarded as by-catch. Thanks to Ewan and Logan Johnson for the pictures.

Jim