Black Park - 16 October 2011

Our first ringing session at Black Park where we have identified a ringing site on the heathland  which is located in the middle end of the north end of the park. The area is dry heath with   and silver birch, with a couple of small pools and a stream through it. The area often has flocks of Finches and today was as expected some large groups of Goldfinch, Lesser Redpoll and Siskins, with a single Crossbill mixed in with one of the flocks. 44 birds were caught, with the first 30 birds being AA rings, with 26 of them being Goldcrests, which we ended up with 32 of the birds rung being Goldcrests with only four finches caught, two Chaffinches and two Lesser Redpolls. There are obviously plenty of Finches at the site, it maybe a question of whether they can be enticed lower down and it may only be achievable by having a feeding station set up.

 

Goldcrest - 3 female

Wren - 3

Great Tit - 3 female

Chaffinch - 3 male

Goldcrest - 3 male

Green Woodpecker - 3 male

Robin - 4

Lesser Redpoll - 4 male

Totals:

Green Woodpecker - 1
Wren -5
Robin -1
Goldcrest - 32
Great Tit -1
Lesser Redpoll -2
Chaffinch -2

Home Cottage Farm, Iver Heath - 15 October 2011

Today was our local Apple Day event at one of our ringing sites, Home Cottage Farm, Iver Heath, where again this year we put on a ringing demo. Unfortunately the event runs from 11am until 4pm, so covers usually the quietest period time when ringing. We arrived to set up at 7.30am, and early catches were quite good, but as they day progressed unfortunately as expected birds become fairly scarce. We managed 56 birds throughout the session and despite the low numbers later it was good to see quite a few people really enjoy seeing birds close up, as well as seeing some of the RG members getting a lot of enjoyment showing the birds. Oddly two re-trapped Nutchatches were processed by the same ringers that had previously first rung the birds at the previous years ringing demo.

Nuthatch -2 (though actually a 4)

 Chaffinch - 3 male

 

 Green Woodpecker - 4 female

Totals:

Green Woodpecker - 1 (1)
Wren -1
Goldcrest -8
Blue Tit - 11 (4)
Great Tit - 10 (1)
Coal Tit - 1
Long-tailed Tit - 9
Nuthatch - 1 (4)
Chaffinch - 4

Broadwater GP - 8 October 2011

Another morning visit, but today just D and myself. A reasonably windy day but this site has a number of fairly sheltered areas and the breeze caused little difficulties. The first Blackbird was caught at the site and of the 53 caught, the main species other than the Tit species were five new Chiff-chaff and Goldcrest, and seven Chaffinch. About 20 House Martins were seen feeding over the site and six Crossbills flew over mid morning.

 Blue Tit - adult

Great Tit - adult

Chiff-chaff 3

Totals:

Robin - 2 (2)
Dunnock - 0 (1)
Blackbird - 1

Chiff-chaff - 5
Goldcrest - 5 (1)
Blue Tit - 13 (4)
Great Tit - 8 (1)
Long-tailed Tit - 2
Treecreeper - 0 (1)
Chaffinch - 7

Broadwater GP - 5 October 2011

A run out in the morning with a relatively easy 7am start saw three of us at the site, with the two others coming from the Maple X side of our group. Nets were set in one or two different positions to previous visits and catching was relatively steady in most of them, with a majority of birds being Tits, with what seemed an unusually large number of the Blue Tits being 4s. A total of 93 birds were caufght, with the highlights being 14 Chaffinchs, a Kestrel and a single Jay. No Chiff-chaffs were caught and only a single Blackcap, indicating that the autumn summer migration is nearing an end, with only the winter migrants to come.

Chffinch - 4 male

kestrel - 3 male

Totals:

Kestrel - 1
Robin - 3 (1)
Dunnock - 4
Blackcap - 1
Goldcrest -2 
Blue Tit - 36 (2)
Great Tit - 22 (1)
Long-tailed Tit - 5
Jay - 1
Chaffinch - 14

Eaststoke, Hayling Island - 3 October 2011

A late night call to the first ever attempt to catch Sanderling on the Hampshire coast saw a midday run down to join Pete Potts and other members of the Farlington RG to set up and take a quick successful catch of 103 Sanderling, all of which were rung as part of the Dutch study programme. Included in the 103 was a single control originally rung in Iceland and already colour ringed. Ringing continued as darkness fell, with everyone contributing as the birds went through several stages of processing, finally being colour ringed before release.

 

Setting up

Moving from boxes to keep net

Processing - ageing and wing length

Release

Team processing

Icelandic Control

Continuing after dusk

With colour rings about to be released

Total:

Sanderling - 102 (1)

Wraysbury GP ringing session - 1 October 2011

A team of nine, equipped for the unseasonally warm weather, went in the hope that birds would continue to frequent the site as they had done on the previous Tuesday. The start was slow as a low hanging mist under a clear sky, albeit very atmospheric to view, delayed early morning foraging.  However the day soon warmed up, and for a brief while catching improved. During this time a flock of circa 60 Linnet were seen a short distance from the ringing station but a hastily erected net caught only a small number of the rebate species.
The leading species was Blackcap with Goldfinch and Meadow Pipit running a close joint second. Surprisingly, the Nightingale, caught on the 24th was again trapped, now carrying a fat score of 1, an increase on the week before but still rather low if the bird is to survive migration. By 11.00am the site was extremely quiet and the team elected for an early finish.

Ringers in the mist

Totals:

Great Spotted Woodpecker  -  (1)
Meadow Pipit  -  11
Wren  -  1
Robin  -  0 (1)
Dunnock  -  7 (5)
Nightingale  -  0 (1)
Blackbird  -  2
Blackcap  -  13
Chiffchaff  -  4
Great Tit  -  2 (1)
Jay  -  0 (1)
Linnet  -  9
Chaffinch  -  2
Goldfinch  -  11
Greenfinch  -  3
Reed Bunting  -  1

Broadwater GP - 29 September 2011

A visit by three of us on what was anticipated to be a fairly quite day was meet with moderate success in that we caught 39 birds, including re-traps from our first session last week, but as expected very few migrants were present with only three Blackcaps and five Chiff-chaffs caught. Nothing else of interest came from the session, though we had a good run of Robins, with six new birds.

Totals:

Dunnock - 2
Robin - 6 (1)
Blackcap - 3
Chiff-chaff - 5
Goldcrest - 2(3)
Blue Tit - 4 (1)
Great Tit - 4 (1)
Long-tailed Tit - 5
Chaffinch - 2

Stanwell Moor ringing site - 28 September 2011

A morning session with two of us, probably was one, if not the worst session at this site with only 10 birds caught. Apart from one large Tit flock, mainly Long-tailed Tits, there were very few signs or sounds of any Warblers present, and Meadow Pipits were clearly also low in numbers hence the low over all catch. We did re-trap one ff the Meadow Pipits from the 15 September though.

Totals:

Meadow Pipit - 4 (1)
Wren -1
Chiff-chaff - 3
Long-tailed Tit - 0 (1)

Wraysbury GP ringing session - 27 September 2011

A RRG team outing with around ten group members turning out with unknown expectations of what they day may produce. We had missed our usual peak Blackcap migration period due to the windy weather mid September so did not know what to expect. As it turned out it was an extremely good day numbers wise with 288 birds (including re-traps) being caught. Blackcaps were still very much in evidence with 88 new birds and two re-traps being caught, making it the leading species for the day, followed by Meadow Pipit with 77 new birds, I control (L166658) and 1 re-trap and Chiff-chaff with 47 new birds and 4 re-traps. A late Garden Warbler was also caught.

Jay 3 

Meadow Pipit box

Meadow Pipit control L166658 - adult

Totals:

Great Spotted Woodpecker - 0 (1)
Meadow Pipit - 77 (1) and a single control
Wren -1
Robin - 2 (3)
Dunnock - 6 (1)
Blackbird - 2
Song Thrush - 1
Garden Warbler - 1
Blackcap - 88 (2)
Chiff-chaff - 47 (4)
Goldcrest - 10
Great Tit - 6 (2)
Long-tailed Tit - 1 (3)
Magpie - 1
Jay - 1
Chaffinch - 2
Goldfinch - 13
Linnet - 4