The end of the ringing year is in sight as the nights get longer and the guys lie frozen on the ground. The annual report will be out in the new year, so this is a brief update about recent activities to keep our loyal readers informed (and indeed enthralled!).
So, the warblers all left us by the end of October, with only an occasional misdirected, or possibly overwintering, Chiffchaff turning up in the nets. Our first Redwing were ringed on 12 October, and so far we have ringed 366; a reasonable total but possibly largely due to the number of sessions rather than a large numbers of birds. Certainly for the last couple of weeks we have had nets up in the dark, resulting in a couple of rounds of Redwing followed by not too much. Fieldfare numbers have been just about adequate (11):
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Down from Scandinavia- Fieldfare, such beautiful birds
One of our classic winter finches, Lesser Redpoll (or possibly, just plain Redpoll according to the latest classification) have been disappointing at only 32. However, there have been a few interesting records. Firstly, on two separate occasions single Siskins were ringed, a species we do not get every year. These were the first since 2020:
Male Siskin... what a stonker!
Next, our Secretary Adam, who for many years has denied even the existence of Firecrest as a species, was finally rewarded with extracting and ringing one on 24 October, much to the relief of the whole group:
Hooray! A Firecrest for AGH
This was the first since 2020. Even more unusual, a single House Sparrow was ringed, the first since 2017; not quite as exciting perhaps, but a real rarity for us:
