Ringing Demo Delights

Strong winds and heavy rain forecast for most of the days of last week with just a narrow window of flat, calm and dry conditions for Saturday until midday before the deluge returned made the planned ringing demonstration for the local Burbage Bird Club look decidedly dodgy to say the least.  Finding a suitable date to suit both parties had pushed the event further back towards the end of November than we would have liked - amid concerns for the effectiveness of the demo both in terms of the number of birds and spread of species that we would have to show them.

We need not have worried - Adam, Masai Mick and Webmaster Mike arrived early to near perfect ringing conditions (for the time of year) of a frosty, slightly misty, dry and calm morning to erect the nets and put the sound systems in place before dawn.  Meanwhile I met the bird club members together with Paul, a potential new SRG trainee, at the entrance to the Railtrack at a more sensible hour before we drove down to the base camp just as the lads were returning from their first extraction round of the nets with an impressive 39 birds.

This first catch included 28 Redwing, a Fieldfare and a Woodcock that Mick had extracted from a net line erected on the reservoir's perimeter grass footpath.  As this was only the sixth Woodcock ringed by us at Stanford and with the last one being some five years ago, the visitors were in for a rare treat indeed.

Mick shows off the Woodcock

The 6th ringed Woodcock for Stanford

The second round of the nets produced just 15 birds and demonstrated the need for erecting nets before the birds start to move off in the hour after dawn - the early ringer catches the birds!


A female Green Woodpecker, albeit a retrap, provided another treat for the demo and brought the cameras out again.  Webmaster Mike announced that this was only the second time that he had processed this species - the first being when he ringed this individual in November last year.

female Green Woodpecker

and from a different angle

Later in the morning a change to the bird calls being played resulted in eleven Lesser Redpolls plus a British control.  This year's total for this species is now 264 and is nearly double the number that we ringed last year.

Several continental Blackbirds with their all black bills and pale edged chest feathers provoked further interest and the number of species continued to increase with Robin, Tree Sparrow, Wren, Treecreeper, Reed Bunting, Chaffinch, Goldfinch and the usual Blue and Great Tits being processed.

A total of 67 new bird ringed and 20 retraps plus one control of 15 species was the final tally for the morning and was as good as we could have hoped for.  The exact totals, with retraps in brackets, were:

Woodcock 1
Green Woodpecker (1)
Wren (1)
Robin (3)
Blackbird 9
Fieldfare 1
Redwing 32 (2)
Blue Tit (4)
Great Tit 1 (2)
Treecreeper (1)
Tree Sparrow 8 (4)
Chaffinch (1)
Goldfinch 2
Lesser Redpoll 11 (1 +1 control)
Reed Bunting 2

The nets started to come down just before midday and at 1205 hrs the rain started right on cue - for once the five day weather forecast had been spot on.

Thanks to the SRG members and the attentiveness and clear interest of the Burbage Bird Club members a highly successful demonstration had been achieved.

Red October

Red October - no not the submarine from the film but a description of the month's ringing at Stanford with several records broken and two controlled Lesser Redpolls.

The adverse weather conditions conspired such that two of the regular Saturday morning group ringing sessions were cancelled and the red dawns became a thing of the past.

However the dank, dreary and dismal days did not put Masai Mick off who made a sterling effort as he undertook several midweek sessions - some with another ringer to accompany him but also half a dozen solo efforts.  He was richly rewarded adding some eight new species to the annual list and thereby achieving a record annual total of 54 species.

The first Jay ringed since 2007

Sparrowhawk

Kestrel - a new species for Webmaster Mike

Green Woodpecker

Firecrest

Despite ringing at Stanford since 1976, this is only the third Firecrest ringed - the other two were in 1984 and 2001.

Towards the end of the month the first Fieldfare (7)  and Redwing (3) were trapped

  Fieldfare                                            

Redwing

and an overdue species:

female Cetti's Warbler   26/10/2012

We ringed our first Cetti's on 29/10/2005 and this was followed by others on 28/10/2006, 13/10/2007, 28/9/2009, 25/10/2009, 6/11/2010.  We also controlled one on 31/10/2009.  Late October would seem to be the time for this species at Stanford and note all except the bird on 28/9/2009 were female.


Despite the inauspicious start, a total of 667 new birds were ringed during the month (click here for details) and 168 retraps and two controls (Lesser Redpoll) processed. It was the second best October total ever, but way behind last October's 933.  With all this activity a couple of other records almost slipped through unnoticed - the month's total of 46 Goldcrest resulted in a record year total of 57 and 224 Lesser Redpoll gave us a year record of 226 handsomely knocking into second place last year's total of 144

A Busy Week At Stanford

Masai Mick sums up one week's ringing at Stanford:

High winds and rain during the first few days of October put paid to any mid-week ringing so that the first session of the month at Stanford was on Saturday 6th,  We arrived at 0600hrs to erect the nets and start the sound systems going before dawn.  The resulting catch for the morning was a creditable 58 new birds and 12 retraps.  The most interesting bird was an adult Grasshopper Warbler in moult which none of us had seen before - it had moulted its head, back and rump together with a pair of tail feathers.  On its wings it had moulted the scapulars and tertials together with the greater and lesser coverts.  Other birds of note were 16 Chiffchaff and 5 Lesser Redpoll (adding to the two ringed last month which were the first of the autumn).

Sunday 7th:
Suspecting that the autumn's Redpoll movement might now have begun, Adam, Jacana and I decided to return for another session on Sunday.  It is extremely unusual for us to ring on a Sunday but we were not disappointed with a catch of 40 new birds (plus 14 retraps) which included 6 new Goldcrest. A further 19 new Lesser Redpoll and a Belgian control Lesser Redpoll made the effort all worthwhile.

Tuesday 9th:
Jacana and I ventured out and had a great morning with 80 new birds and 12 retraps.  The first Coal Tit of the year, 5 new Goldcrest and 34 new Lesser Redpoll being the highlights of the session.

Wednesday 10th:
With the good weather continuing, Webmaster Mike and I were back at Stanford - 60 new birds ringed included 6 Chiffchaff, 8 Goldcrest and a further 26 Lesser Redpoll.  A Kestrel caught at the edge of a 30 foot net on the Railtrack was a new species for Mike.

Thursday 11th:
The weather conditions changed as I tried a solo effort for the last session of the week - overcast and windy meant that there were very few birds moving and only 20 new birds were added to the week's total - another Coal Tit and three Lesser Redpoll were the birds of note.

In summary the week's effort was well rewarded with the Belgian Lesser Redpoll control and totals of 259 new birds ringed and 63 retraps processed.  New birds included 5 Blackcap, 3 Reed Warbler, 27 Goldcrest, 28 Chiffchaff, 29 Tree Sparrow, 14 Greenfinch, 87 Lesser Redpoll and 11 Reed Bunting.
The current number of 89 Lesser Redpoll ringed is encouraging as it is already our second best annual total for this species and that last year we had only managed 6 at this time although we did go on to a record breaking 144 for the site.

This Week At Stanford

Two ringing sessions at Stanford this week resulted in a total of 80 new birds, 34 retraps and a control.

Masai Mick managed a solo effort on Thursday and, with an eye on the weather, erected a few nets from the feeding station to the "Berries" net ride.  He managed to ring 38 new birds which included 11 Blackcaps and 2 Lesser Whitethroats and controlled an adult female Sedge Warbler.

With the weather forecast for Saturday of heavy rain from 0700 hrs the outlook was depressingly poor but it miraculously altered overnight pushing the heavy rain now due back to 1300 hrs. Time enough for a ringing session!  Mick, Ed, Dawn and I arrived at 0500 hrs to an overcast sky and a light breeze.  Nets were erected from "The Church" ride to "The Berries" with a single 30 foot on the Railtrack.  The first round of the nets brought in 26 birds and the first Kingfisher (a juvenile female) of the year.  As expected the next net rounds produced fewer birds but included the first juvenile Great Spotted Woodpeckers of the year.  A group of four birders from Burbage Bird Club arrived as we were packing up and were treated to an impromptu ringing demonstration as we processed the last birds of the day with the very last being another juvenile female Kingfisher!

Juvenile Great Spotted Woodpecker

Juvenile female Kingfisher

Warbler Full Set

A cool, overcast morning greeted Mick, JC and myself when we arrived at Stanford today.  Ringing from the Bench to the Point in anticipation of a reasonable catch we were quickly disappointed. Another slow morning so typical of the year thus far, resulted in just 24 new birds ringed. There are simply very few birds about at present.

However, we did manage to ring at least one of each of the nine breeding warbler species at Stanford Reservoir (Chiffchaff, Willow, Sedge, Reed, Blackcap, Garden, Grasshopper, Whitethroat and Lesser Whitethroat). That got us wondering - when did we last manage a 'full set' of warblers?

The answer is we did it once in 2011 (23rd July), three times in 2010, and five times in 2009. In fact today's achievement was the 26th time we’ve ringed all our breeding warbler species in one day... but it has never been done with so few birds around!

Adult Female Grasshopper Warbler

Juvenile Lesser Whitethroat

Blowin' in the Wind - Empty nets!

A Marbled White butterfly, only the third record at Stanford, was the morning's highlight (we don't have a picture of this as JC does not move as fast as he used to...)

Spotty Youngsters

Yesterday Masai Mick and I arrived at Stanford at 0445 hrs and quickly erected several nets in the 40 foot rides from the reservoir dam towards the location of the Wildlife Trust's birdwatching hide. Previously known as "The New Hide" it was recently demolished on health and safety grounds and the location will be known for evermore as "The Old Hide".


We were treated to a fabulous sunrise as these images attempt to show:

Sunrise over the Poplars

With not a breath of wind, the reservoir was flat calm and, dare I say it, the weather was just too hot and the sky too clear for a productive ringing session.

Draw-off Tower

We managed 26 new birds (plus 10 retraps) which included the second juvenile Lesser Whitethroat of the year, a couple of juvenile Reed Warblers with prominent tongue spots and a juvenile Robin.

Spotty Robin

We also ringed two juvenile Sedge Warblers which were sporting very well marked "necklaces".  Most juvenile Sedges have a line of small dark spots starting at the sides of the breast which vary both in intensity and the number of spots - usually one or two spots at each side of the chest is the norm but these two birds had as well defined necklaces as we have seen for a long time.

Spotty Sedge Warbler

Here Comes The Sun

With the incessant poor weather since April there has been very little to blog.  Most planned ringing sessions at Stanford have been either cancelled, curtailed or produced very few birds. June 2011 resulted in 846 new birds being ringed whilst this June we managed just 307 - a total that was boosted with 46 Swallows from an adjacent stables to which we were given access for the first time (thanks Helen).
The weather forecast for yesterday was excellant and so the prospect of a good catch was very real - if only there were birds about.


Nets were erected in the early morning mist:

                                                                   

which cleared within twenty minutes:

                                                                              
                     
Mick came back from the first round of the nets and triumphantly thrust a bird bag into my hand - inside an adult male Redstart! We have ringed only 16 at Stanford since we started in 1976 so this was a very good bird and surprisingly the second this year as we ringed an adult female in June.
           

Adult male Redstart 21st July 

                                                                 

Adult female Redstart 20th June

The total catch for day was 65 new birds with 20 retraps - our best day so far but well short of what we would normally expect at this time of year.

Warblers predominated with:
Sedge Warbler 2 new (+ 2 retraps)
Reed Warbler 2
Whitethroat 15
Garden Warbler 2 (+1)
Blackcap 3 (+2)
Chiffchaff 4
Willow Warbler 9 (+5)

With good weather predicted for next week, a mid week session is planned.