Thursday 17 November 2011

A Dutch Control and other Goodies

The perfect ringing conditions continued at Stanford for the last two weeks with overcast grey skies, reasonably flat calm mornings and no rain but there are no birds.  The Hawthorn bushes are laden with larger than normal berries awaiting the winter thrushes that so far have only appeared in small numbers with flocks generally consisting of ten birds or less.

Hawthorn berries for the taking


Mixed finch flocks are also a bit scarce as the expected Chaffinch numbers have failed to materialise so far, despite there being a reasonable harvest of Beech mast on the "Top Road" [the road on the Leicester side of the Reservoir from which the main entrance to the Reservoir can be accessed].

On Monday 7th, Intrepid Adam managed a solo session and ringed 23 new birds which included 11 Tree Sparrows and 3 Yellowhammers (always a good bird for Stanford) and amongst his 44 retraps was well rewarded by controlling our first Dutch Robin (NLA AT92405) - yes thank you - we have heard all the jokes about Robin Van Persie and 'was it trapped in the Dyke net ride?'

Masai Mick and I ventured out the next day to target any thrushes that might be around - we managed 8 new Redwing and 7 new Goldfinches amongst the paltry 23 new birds (with 10 retraps).

On Saturday 12th practically the whole group turned out such that we were able to split the effort with Masai Mick, Richard, Debbie and Emma ringing at the Top Road whilst, Adam, Webmaster Mike, Ed, Dawn and I netted from the 'Berries Boundary net ride' round to the 'Dyke Boundary ride'.  This action proved worthwhile as a total of 93 new birds were ringed and a further 49 retraps processed.  The 63 new birds on the Top Road primarily consisted of 25 Great Tits, 15 Blue Tits, 15 Chaffinches, a Goldcrest and yet another Treecreeper whilst a Nuthatch was amongst the 30 retraps.  Meanwhile the 'A' Team based on the old Railtrack sought quality rather than quantity and their 30 new birds consisted of 5 Redwing, 2 Fieldfare, [Ed christening his new pliers with his first ever Fieldfare], 2 Yellowhammers and a Green Woodpecker - the second this year but only the 20th that we have ever ringed at this site. 

Ed poses with his new pliers and his first Fieldfare

Ed put his pliers down for a while to take this photo of his 2nd Fieldfare

Female Green Woodpecker



Masai Mick and I ventured out once more on Tuesday 15th and our new birds comprised of singletons of Wren, Woodpigeon, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Goldfinch, Coal Tit, Blackbird, and Song Thrush with 6 Tree Sparrows bringing the total to 13 new birds.  However the effort was worthwhile as amongst the 16 retraps was a control adult male Lesser Redpoll (is L082272 yours?)

Control adult male Lesser Redpoll

Is L082272 your bird?


Intrepid Adam and Webmaster Mike tackled the Top Road today and their 31 birds consisted of 9 Longtailed Tits, 4 Blue Tits, 6 Great Tits, 4 Chaffinches and yet another Treecreeper whilst their 29 retraps were predominantly Great Tits.

The totals for the period:

7th - 17th November

Reasonable totals resulting from a good deal of effort - thanks to all involved.

1 comment:

  1. Hi !

    Do you already know the origins of the Dutch ringed robin? If not I could try to look for the Dutch ringer and try to get the ringing data quicker than through the normal pipeline.
    Please repy to: Henri.bouwmeester@home.nl

    ReplyDelete

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