A decent session here in my garden yesterday in Sibthorpe. The key highlights were as follows: 54 birds processed, as many as the previous two sessions! Oldest bird was a Dunnock ringed in November 2019. Birds processed (new/already ringed): Blackbird 3/1, Blue Tit 2/2, Dunnock 4/4, Goldfinch 6/1, Great Tit 3/1, Greenfinch 4/0, House Sparrow 12/7, Robin 1/0, Starling 2/0, Wren 1/0. A small influx of Blackbirds as the 'continental' type birds often turn up about now (see photo below). A Goldfinch was 'controlled' that had been ringed near Grantham this October. This species can be highly mobil ..read more

Compared to week 1 of the winter CES visit at Broomfield College it was certainly a lot quieter. A number of species were seen flying around the site with flocks of Goldfinch, Long-tailed Tits, a handful of Redwing and even a Peregrine Falcon made an appearance. However not many ventured down to the feeders or tape lures that were out.  Kev, Alex, Holly and I managed to process a total of 22 birds including 5 retraps, comprising: 6 Long-tailed Tits, 2 Goldcrest, 7 Blue Tits, 3 Great Tits, 1 Chaffinch, 1 Dunnock, 1 Greenfinch and 1 Redwing. Christine had kindly baked us some banana, walnut ..read more

Jim, Kev H, Rowan, Jamie and myself headed out to the NTU Brackenhurst campus to complete visit two of the Winter CES at the site. We set the usual three nets in a copse baited with seed, plus two more thrush nets at the edge of a field. More than half the birds were tits, with a worryingly high proportion of adults. This mirrors the experience of other ringers this season and suggests a poor breeding season. We also caught a high number of retraps, which is good data that contributes towards the survival rates of species. The highlight was catching a young female Kestrel. Though after the ses ..read more

Since I started ringing at Manor Floods Nature Reserve in 2018, I have been using just 36m of mist nets to monitor the bird populations on this huge site. Recently, I reached a significant milestone: over 1,000 birds ringed, with the 1,000th bird being a Blackcap. To date, I have ringed a total of 1,034 birds at the site. Manor Floods is an exceptional location, characterised by a diverse mosaic of habitats. The reserve’s scrubland, interspersed with wetlands and bordered by woodland, provides an ideal environment for both resident and migratory species. The scrub habitat, in particular, has ..read more

What else would we do on a bank holiday Monday but go to Skylarks NR? The weather was mostly calm and sunny, though the breeze picked up a little as the morning progressed. There appeared to be a lot of birds flitting around the bushes as we set up, and the first couple of net rounds produced a surprising number of birds (considering the total birds for last week was 12, we weren’t sure what to expect this week). We finished up with a total of 69 birds including 8 retraps: Chiffchaff 28, Blackcap 13, Reed Warbler 10, Lesser Whitethroat 7, Garden Warbler 5, Willow Warbler 3, Wren 1, Song Thrush ..read more

While the feeders were still in place after the demo, myself and Josh set up two nets at Allestree. A fresh layer of snow covered the ground, and we moved the base twice to prevent melting ice from permeating our notebooks. The majority of the birds we caught were tits. We tried a tape lure for Nuthatch which did attract the attention of at least two birds, but they didn’t come down to the net. Although Goldfinches were present throughout the morning we didn’t manage to catch any finches either. Of note were two adult Great Tits that had arrested their moult. They had retained a small number o ..read more

Since earning my C permit in August of this year, I have been ringing in my garden to see just how many birds eat the food. This week marked the 200th bird ringed, of 16 species. By far the most numerous of all the birds has been Blue Tit. I have ringed 93 Blue Tits in just 20 foot of net. Out of these, only 31 have been EURING age code 3 (born this year). This means 2/3 have been adults, which is a concerning statistic for this year’s breeding success and the future numbers of the population. Numbers can bounce back after a poor breeding season, but this relies on better weather and abundant ..read more

After a few sessions attempting to catch Meadow Pipits and Reed Buntings on the open habitat near the solar farm, I returned to the western side of the park to try for Redwing and Redpoll. School run duties meant that a later start was made, so I was surprised that I managed to catch a few Redwing on the first round, and it looked promising with lots of birds around, but unfortunately no more found the net. It was a similar story with the Redpoll, an extended net ride from the summer set-up had Redpoll calls playing but failed to attract anything. In a bid of desperation, I put the trusty Lott ..read more

For the second ringing session at Allestree Park, I had managed to organise a demo for members of the local organisations. We set up eight nets across the site, and put out a mix of bird food to attract some resident species. This certainly helped with numbers, as we caught over 60 Blue Tits, Great Tits and Coal Tits in the nets near the food. The birds remained steady all morning, with highlights being 3 Redpoll, 1 Redwing, and 1 Treecreeper – birds that many people don’t get to see regularly. Over the morning, we had over 30 visitors arrive, finding out a bit more about bird ringing. Feedba ..read more

On Sunday, we visited Broomfield College for our second Winter CES session. We set up our usual nets in a copse baited with seed and fat balls. Outside the copse, we set up two areas for Redwing and one net in an orchard for Fieldfare and other thrushes. After the success of the first visit where we caught 40 Redwing, this week was rather underwhelming with a total catch of only 20 birds of 8 species, including 8 retraps. The highlight was an adult female Kestrel. One positive was the orchard site and mixed thrush tape seemed to be working well to attract Blackbirds, with 4 caught and many mor ..read more