More colour-ringed Marsh Tits, and the return of a chick!

Headed out to the Dales end of the Farm at Wyken again first thing, and had 3 nets up as the daylight gathered. Unfortunately the wind also picked up quite early, threatening to blow the nets into the hawthorn hedge that runs alongside of the net lane, so packed up early.

Totals from Dales Field:

Wren 1
Dunnock 1
Greenfinch 2
Yellowhammer 2
Reed Bunting 2

Headed home for a late breakfast, then decided to go try to find a sheltered spot in Kiln Wood to see if I could find any new Marsh Tits to colour ring for my proposed RAS.

Put a couple of nets in Ride 1, and in a couple of hours had a small haul, but had managed to get two new Marsh Tits in the bag. They were LBR,M;RBR,K, and LBR,M;RBR,N. Both were adults, and I suspect they were the pair that nested in one of the nearby tit boxes (I ringed 8 pulli from this box).

Totals from Ride 1 in Kiln Wood:

Wren 1
Goldcrest (1)
Marsh Tit 2
Great Tit 2

Keen to get more Marsh Tits out of Kiln Wood I drove right to the back compartment where so far I'd not done any ringing. Put up a single 18m net along Ride 9, played some LOTTI music, and within 10 minutes had a real mixed bag of tits, including 2 more Marsh Tits.

One of the Marsh Tits became LBR,M;RBR,L, while the other one was already ringed (L671513). Interestingly, this came out of the tit box in May, where I'd caught LBR,M;RBR,K, and LBR,M;RBR,N in Ride 1 just an hour earlier. Seems likely that that pair are the parents of L671513. Either way, this youngster had travelled about 1km, and stayed within the same wood. I always metal ring on the right leg, but unfortunately when my colour ring project was given the go ahead recently I was allotted the position of metal ring on the left leg, so this particular tit will have to remain without colour rings!

Totals from Ride 9 in Kiln Wood:

Wren 1
Goldcrest 2
Long-tailed Tit 6
Marsh Tit 1 (1)
Coal Tit 1
Blue Tit 1

Looks like Ride 9 is going to be a good site all-round. It's long enough for 3 x 18m nets in a line, and passes through some lovely old oak wood, mixed with a few Scots pine and larch (though they're likely to be felled fairly soon). There's a lot of hazel, holly, and bramble shrub layer, and bracken, etc as ground layer, so could be very promising. Bring on the summer warblers!

A nice little haul

Spent the morning out at the top of Dales, the field at the southern fringes of the farm. Good and misty to start, with not a breath of wind, first into the net was a control Robin (BA65008). The total bag was:

(Retraps in Brackets)

Wren (1)
Dunnock 5
Robin 1 (1)
Song Thrush 2
Blue Tit 6 (6)
Great Tit 4 (1)
Greenfinch 5
Yellowhammer 8
Reed Bunting 2

TOTALS 33 (9)

Reed Bunting

Yellowhammer

A few birds here, and a few birds there...

A short session at Market Weston Fen yesterday produced a handful of Reed Buntings, plus an unexpected Moorhen. Unfortunately I'd travelled light out to the ringing site, and didn't have rings for the Moorhen, so it had to go free without its bit of jewellery!

This morning I nipped out to do a reccy for the Foraging Farmland Bird Project that's just starting up in Suffolk. After a bit of a palaver putting nets up at the south end of the farm at Wyken, I soon had a few Yellowhammers in the bag, plus a few other odds and sods.

Back home late this afternoon had just enough daylight left to open the net in my garden, and was rewarded with two Blackbirds, both females, and a lovely Song Thrush.



Control LOTTI anyone?

A busy hour yesterday (16th October) at Ash Corner, with nearly 30 birds, all tits apart from a couple of wrens.

Best bird was a Control Long-tailed Tit - DVA053, ringed on it's left leg. This bird probably hasn't come too far, so anyone in West Suffolk know where and when this was ringed?

Plethora of Parus

Had a net up in the garden from first light this morning.

16 birds caught (9 new, 7 retraps):

Wren 2
Dunnock (1)
Marsh Tit 1
Coal Tit 1
Blue Tit 4 (4)
Great Tit 1

The Marsh Tit was nice to see in particular, as it became part of my colour-ringing RAS project, becoming LBR,M;RBR,P

LBR,M;RBR,P

Oh, when will the wind ease?

Very windy here in Suffolk for the last couple of days, and the forecast looks like we could get a whole week more of it.

Managed to put a net up yesterday afternoon for an hour, just got:

BLUTI 4
GRETI 3 (1)
DUNNO (2)

Recoveries

Just had info back from the BTO about 2 recoveries I've had here at Wyken.

Greenfinch BE25195, a 4 male, caught here on 3rd August 2011, ringed by the BTO in Thetford as a 5 male on 16th February 2005.

Reed Bunting V555325, a 4 male, sighted colour rings here on 26th May 2011, ringed by Greg Conway, also here at Wyken Hall, as a 5 male on 2nd March.

The reed bunting was a breeding bird this year, and I ringed 4 pulli from that clutch.