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!