Friday 11 March 2011

Garden - 6 to 11 Mar 2011

A few brief sessions in the garden, one briefly after the Sunbury Waxwing session on the 6th, and the rest due to the earlier sunrises before going to work on 7/8th & 10/11th, with the sessions on 7/8 th being joined by Gavin to get his first Siskin ringing experience and thankfully had a few to get a reasonable idea of the differences between 5 & 6s.

Totals were:
6th - Dunnock (2), Blue Tit and Goldfinch
7th - Robin, Blue Tit and Siskin (8)
8th - Blue Tit, Great Tit and Siskin (8)
11th - Blue Tit (2) and Siskin (7)
12th - Blackbird and Siskin (3)


Goldfinch - 6 male

On the 10th we re-caught L605734 a 6 Blue Tit with a deformed bill that had originally been rung on 28/10/10 as a 4. The bill on the upper mandible was now 20mm (1mm) longer, the lower mandible was also longer. The bird was extremely waxy to the feel, probably to to preening difficulties and was only 9.9g, sadly possibly the bill defect was beginning to effect the birds condition and possibly life expectancy.