Monday 5 January 2015

You never know what is going to turn up!

The clutch on my car is poorly at the moment so I have been house bound today. The wind was about 10mph coming from the south and overcast so what better way is there than to do some ringing in the garden. I erected a 20ft net and didn't get started until about 11.00am because of getting quotes to get my car repaired.

I caught the usual Blue Tits, Great Tits and a few others and then three Lesser Redpoll which was a very pleasant surprise being the birds of the day. According to my records the first Redpoll to be caught last year was on 22/01/2014 followed by two in February, one in March and one in April. Five birds in total, all males.


Species
New
Re-traps
Total
Blue Tit
19
3
22
Great Tit
4

4
Lesser Redpoll
3

3
Chaffinch
1

1
Goldfinch
2
2
4
Dunnock

1
1
House Sparrow
3

3
Totals
32
6
38


This is the first session in my garden this year, 3 Lesser Redpoll is a good start and maybe the numbers will increase. All three birds were juveniles born last year two males and one female. The above bird is the male


Female Lesser Redpoll


The first session last year was on 22/01/2014 when I caught and processed 28 birds. The Redpoll caught on this day was an adult male. Who knows the birds today could be the juveniles from last years adults and maybe they are breeding in the area.


I thought I would post this picture of the Goldfinch because I think it is quite a good example of a female showing the nostril grey hairs.

The re-trapped Dunnock with ring Y849932 was ringed in my garden on 23/10/2013 as a 3P, a juvenile born that year. The other five re-traps were birds from last year.

2 comments:

  1. My garden surprise today was the 22nd Blackcap of the winter and the 2nd Black Red (the 1st was Xmas week). Errol

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  2. Hi Errol
    22 Blackcap is very nice indeed, only had 3 in may garden last year and two Black Redstart is like 2 GGShrike. I have ringed one Red about two years ago on Skokholm and that is the only place I ever see them. There has been a few records that I know of in the Cardiff area.
    Anyway I only know you as Errol so where does the Lew come from.

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