Whose Tree Sparrow Is This?

Mick and I decided to have a quiet morning's ringing for four hours at Stanford to have a break from the ride clearing and scrub bashing of recent weeks.  We set up the three nets at the Feeder Station and were rewarded with 24 new birds, 28 retraps and a control Tree Sparrow.
The tally was:
Great Spotted Woodpecker 1
Dunnock (2)
Coal Tit 1
Blue Tit 9 (13)
Great Tit 8 (8)
Tree Sparrow 2 (3 + 1 control)
Chaffinch 2 (1)
Reed Bunting 1 (1)
The retrap Reed Bunting was one of 5 pullus ringed in June 2006

Control Tree Sparrow TL22946

We were also rewarded with a reasonable view of a Muntjac

While the Cats are Away

 
With Masai Mick enjoying a three week sojurn in Costa Rica, one trainee doing the same in Sri Lanka, yet another trainee carrying out extensive building repairs and yours truly recovering from a fall on the ice which put my recovery from a knee replacement operation back several weeks, the number of troops available for the annual ride clearance and scrub bash at Stanford has been severely depleted in recent weeks - or so you would have thought but our ever-resourceful Head Chef press-ganged her neighbours into turning out in the cold and rain to assist.  So many thanks to Sue and Malc for all their efforts.

WOW a Wall Of Warblers. A review of 2010.

Mick Townsend reflects on the best year ever for the Stanford Ringing Group ~

Stanford Reservoir - Report For 2010

A Little Something for Xmas

People would be wrong to think we only catch thrushes at Stanford in December. Admittedly, 48 of the 50 new birds ringed today were thrushes... but amongst the other (two) birds was the 51st species to be ringed at the Reservoir this year, a Little Owl...

Snow ringing today!

As the snow is now falling it is time to update the blog with the results from the last couple of ringing sessions.

Mick visited the res on Monday and managed a very credible 33 Redwing, 19 Fieldfare, 2 Blackbird, 1 Song Thrush and 1 Reed Bunting.

A crisp and frosty Tuesday morning accompanied by a beautiful lunar eclipse saw Mick and Adam push the Redwing total over the 600 milestone with a further 58 ringed. A dozen more Fieldfare, 3 Blackbird and 2 Reed Bunting completed the days ringing.

With October Redwing weights being mid 50's to low 60's, it was encouraging to see that they were predominately mid 60's to mid 70's with only the odd one in the high 50's to low 60's range.

Ding Dong! - Redwings Merrily On High!

 Friday 17th December

After Masai Mick's midweek effort in raising the Group's annual total of Redwing above the 400 mark, the question we were all asking was "Can we take the total to 500 before the New Year?"

The question was rapidly confined to the waste bin after Friday's session:

AGH, having worked extensive shifts all week and being completely oblivious to his family's needs of assistance with the festive preparations, decided to team up with MJT for another early morning sortie to Stanford in the search for even more thrushes.  Three hours later, having duly ringed one Song Thrush, four Blackbirds, thirteen Fieldfare and one hundred (yes - 100 !!) Redwing it was apparent that the Redwing target had been set too low.

With the Group's ring stocks now dwindling faster than the Council's grit supplies an urgent call to BTO sales was clearly needed in order to remedy the situation and I was promised that the BTO Elves would package and post my order without delay.

 Saturday 18th December

With not a trainee in sight, the three of us met at the usual hour of 0600hrs and those of a superstitious mind will realise what was to come - a poor catch of a couple of Fieldfare, 3 Blackbirds and 15 Redwing quickly brought us back down to earth.  However, as it was pointed out, not so very long ago we would have been pleased with 15 Redwing as an annual total. Cue to retire to The White Hart for refreshments in front of the log fire!

Masai Mick's Record Jump

With dreadful weather forecast for today, the troops were duly informed that today's ringing was cancelled.


Masai Mick



Our Dear Leader, MJT (aka "Masai Mick" for reasons yet to be divulged) awoke early, ostensibly to watch the cricket.  However, he decided that a couple of hours ringing was actually possible before the weather broke and duly slipped over to Stanford.  He ringed 21 new Redwings and was back home before the rest of us had stirred from our slumbers.

His sterling effort increased the number of Redwing ringed this year at the site to 402, making it the second most ringed species there this year - behind the 483 Blue Tits 



Masai