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nts of the sticky eucalypt pollen that it fed on before migrating to the uk in order to build up its fat reserves just before the end of the month the first chiffchaff ended up in the net a male of course a couple of blackcaps before that event were assumed to be winter visitors but the first returning bird was probably on the 29th adult male brambling still 6 8 weeks away from gaining a full black head breeding plumage so this was march woodpigeon 3 1 collared dove 1 goldcrest 3 1 the retrap male was caught 4 times sexes even blue tit 4 4 no real signs of breeding intentions yet great tit 3 1 1 control coal tit 8 1 another rush of youngsters before 3 adults on 21st 22nd long tailed tit 6 3 4 caught together the rest were singletons chiffchaff 1 male blackcap 3 1 new 2cy males and a female from the beginning of december wren 1 2 starling 1 blackbird 2 4 1 adult pair the rest are first time buyers robin 3 4 dunnock 2 5 all 2cy birds canny adults know where the net is not house sparrow 5 11 mainly foraging males chaffinch 18 1 just 6 were males females travel further south in winter hence the scientific name for bachelor brambling 16 11 males to 5 females also 11 immatures to 5 adults greenfinch 8 3 all re traps and 5 new were females goldfinch 42 30 10 were left unaged abrasion is beginning to take its toll of diagnostic features and 17 were left unsexed usually because of mixed signals from the cloaca siskin 132 7 1 control the controlled siskin had come 707 km from scotland near inverness where it was ringed at the beginning of february 2014 as a 2cy male the great tit was one of john s ringed just 34 days earlier one recovery came through adult male siskin ringed in april 2013 turned up in a net near lockerbie on 27th february this year 439 km north 1048 days later front end of a breeding male siskin notable recaptures were of two 5 year old male house sparrows and two fourth year goldfinch re caught for the first time that s it more next month posted by unknown 1 comment email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels bird ringing somerset sunday april 17 2016 early 2016 a new year dawns the new year saw the continuation of the wet weather it finally petered out in the middle of february just in time for my birthday and a birding visitor from bedford the birds were not so much affected by the 200 mm of rain in six weeks as we were nettlecombe also got a miss apart from new year s day i was able to ring for short periods before or after the daily showers but the pickings were generally slim initially it was mainly greenfinch and goldfinch that were interested in the sfh with the greenfinchs tailing off as the month progressed and being replaced with the sight of a few local siskins i managed to ring 43 goldies 31 greenies and 15 siskins by the end of january together with 13 long tailed tits lottis and 11 blue tits a couple more overwintering blackcaps 3 goldcrests 4 coal tits and 3 chaffinch on the non passerine front a sparrowhawk a woodpigeon a rook and a collared dove all stuck long enough for me to extract and ring them these figures were all bolstered by a significant number of re traps for instance there were another 39 individual goldfinches in the net 13 blue tits and 7 coal tits virtually doubling the new bird figures so january kicked off the new year with the following numbers of known individual birds both newly ringed and returning birds from last year or earlier sparrowhawk 1 woodpigeon 1 collared dove 1 rook 1 goldcrest 4 1 blue tit 11 13 great tit 2 coal tit 4 7 long tailed tit 13 5 blackcap 2 wren 2 blackbird 2 3 robin 8 2 locals the rest were most likely wintering dunnock 4 resident birds house sparrow 5 4 they have a flight path which avoids the net pied wagtail 1 chaffinch 3 3 greenfinch 31 1 an even split of the sexes 24 immature birds goldfinch 43 39 again quite a few with aspergillosis siskin 15 2 one was a control from 15km west records of two kingfishers came to light the first was a breeding female from last year that was found dead beside a pond 2km to the south this most likely died of starvation as the streams ran full and with a heavy red brown silt load that would have hindered fishing the second was caught in neighbouring ringer john s garden 2km to the west i also had a recovery of a young sedge warbler from donges in france 438km south from here in just 12 days after ringing could have been a welsh bird that was already on the move when i caught it large breeding population 50 75km to the north of here now on to february after a while by that i mean when the rains subsided a different picture emerged on my birthday i caught the first of eleven bramblings for the month a species i had not handled here since mid april 2013 with them came the chaffinches and the siskins in all i ringed in excess of 150 new finches before the end of the month two more blackcaps made 12 for the winter two thirds of them being males one of these was a returning bird which i first ringed just before christmas 2012 first winter male blackcap note the sharp wing and tail feathers so on to february s figures woodpigeon 1 goldcrest 1 a splendid male blue tit 4 3 no signs of pre nuptials yet great tit 2 coal tit 3 long tailed tit 1 2 blackcap 2 2cy males wren 1 blackbird 3 2 display pairing towards the month end robin 2 dunnock 3 2 courting behaviour becoming obvious house sparrow 3 1 pied wagtail peg leg still being friendly each morning brambling 11 7 of which were males chaffinch 15 females out numbered males 2 1 bullfinch 1 greenfinch 21 8 the re traps were from earlier this winter goldfinch 63 57 these 120 birds were but a fraction of the birds moving south especially after the rains stopped and temperatures dropped by far the majority were young birds siskin 48 10 includes 2 controls the siskin controls were each different the first had been ringed last autumn as an adult female in thetford forest suffolk 304km and 160 days earlier the other was ringed as an immature female almost three years to the day by neighbour john at five bells that s between williton and watchet 1098 days previously is this one a local breeder i also received notice of a goldfinch that had been ringed as a young bird two summers ago at oxwich marsh swansea 74km north west of here as well i re caught another one 1572 days that s about 4y 3m 3 weeks after it was ringed then about 6 months old at last i had the correct details of a 2cy female blackcap that we trapped down the meadows last spring it had been caught and ringed in a vineyard at a place called bouloc which is approx 20km north of toulouse france and 893km to the south of here when it was presumably still on or nearing the end of its autumn migration all in all that s 317 new birds of 22 species ringed so far this year posted by unknown no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels bird ringing somerset tuesday april 12 2016 the remainder of 2015 this is by way of catch up and to fill in the gap bird ringing continued on a regular basis at the house with a few sorties to nettlecombe field centre which is situated in the exmoor national park just 4 5 km to the sw but 100 m higher november was the month for tits both new ones and old ones the thrushes were noticeable only for their absence having already passed through the odd siskin started appearing from mid month temperatures held up daily max in the mid teens and we had far less rain than normal i caught goldfinches every day the nets were open with a highs of 21 on 13th and 20th alongside these were several greenfinch that had perked up at the beginning of the month astonishingly there were no controls of other people s birds at all this month totals for november old birds in brackets woodpigeon 1 4th of the year gt spotted woodpecker 3 2 young males a young female goldcrest 7 1 blue tit 34 4 plus 23 5 at nettlecombe great tit 1 5 plus 14 3 at nettlecombe coal tit 4 9 plus 5 at nettlecombe long tailed tit 8 6 plus 7 at nettlecombe blackcap 2 wintering birds from central europe nuthatch 4 all at nettlecombe wren 1 1 blackbird 1 and 1 at nettlecombe robin 5 dunnock 1 1 house sparrow 1 3 chaffinch 3 plus singleton at nettlecombe greenfinch 21 goldfinch 151 51 75 of these were juveniles see also below siskin 7 1 296 new total handlings 416 this is the back view of an adult male siskin note the rounded wing feathers and broad tertials with distinct silvery white extremities the feathers of juveniles would all be sharper and much more worn trawling through the ringing book the following old birds were of some note goldfinch young juvenile birds from 2012 2 2013 3 2014 10 and indeterminate aged adults from 2014 2 or 17 that have survived one or more winters december was a quiet month on the tit front good for wintering blackcaps and passing greenfinch and a little quieter for goldfinch siskin passage if there was such a thing was over on the 13th i retrapped a male blackcap that i had ringed here in december 2012 as a 1cy 1st calendar year bird where it had spent the intervening winters is unknown i was away for the last ten days of the month in norfolk which is when the rains started this was not unexpected as the month was very unsettled beforehand now december s totals woodpigeon 1 blue tit 6 6 plus a control from bratton 15km w great tit 2 1 coal tit 4 5 long tailed tit 3 1 plus a bird ringed at five bells in january 2011 5y 8m or older blackcap 5 1 plus the control see above blackbird 4 1 all young birds robin 2 4 a couple of the retraps were adults dunnock 3 house sparrow 7 pied wagtail 1 peg leg ringed as a breeding male in july 2012 and 2 years old chaffinch 2 greenfinch 38 2 just 3 adults with a significant number of females goldfinch 88 18 28 were adults 6 remained unaged the rest this year s youngsters siskin 1 1 156 new total handlings 223 during november and december i looked to see how many birds had aspergillosis this is a fungal disease that effects the lungs i used a five point scoring system in all i picked out that 137 birds mostly juveniles were infected this amounts to just under 60 of all young birds 15 of all goldfinches were severely infected it may well be a major factor in the survival statistics for the species very few adults those that had already survived at least one winter and one breeding season seemed to have contracted it perhaps these are stronger birds with better resilience towards any infection i do see it in other species i e robin dunnock great tit but only rarely the full year s totals can be seen in the sidebar under my pages posted by unknown 1 comment email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels bird ringing somerset thursday november 5 2015 100 days after a few gripes from followers i have had a day off from ringing and domestic chores and decided to bring things up to date life has been hectic on both fronts and i apologise for cramming 15 weeks into one report first i ll start with the work we have been doing at the fsc leonard wills field study center at nettlecombe court since july we have ringed in a garden attached to the property that is being revitalised by the wildlife trust volunteers first of all we installed a feeder between the beds and always erect a 40 net between it and the old stables so far this year we have caught 125 birds of 19 species over a number of spread out visits charles worked here during 2014 5 on work experience before recently returning to finish his degree at bangor i already had prior permission to ring on the surrounding estate woodland woodpigeon 1 goldcrest 1 blue tit 45 3 pulli great tit 21 coal tit 11 swallow 1 3 pulli long tailed tit 7 all bar 2 of this cohort chiffchaff 1 blackcap 3 nuthatch 7 we think this was possibly a complete family treecreeper 1 wren 4 blackbird 1 robin 2 dunnock 1 chaffinch 1 greenfinch 1 goldfinch 4 2 controls siskin 2 the controlled goldfinches both carried my rings one was ringed this year as a recently fledged bird 66 days before being re netted at nettlecombe and the other was also a newly fledged bird but from 2014 whereabouts unknown for 526 days these two sites are just 5 km apart and completely different habitat wise flat low elevation versus hilly at 150 m above datum meanwhile back at the ranch the figures for the last four months of newly ringed birds are as follows species in brackets last week of july 42 but 65 retraps 17 august 208 19 september 351 1 control 23 october 286 19 the totals by species from my previous blog up to 1st november are as follows collared dove 2 immatures kingfisher 1 another immature gt spotted woodpecker 1 beggars to age these jackdaw 1 unexpected at this time of year early sept goldcrest 14 2 adult males 6 each young males and females another difficult one to age with any certainty blue tit 112 the majority in september and to some extent october local dispersal great tit 44 mostly late september into october coal tit 63 numbers picked up from early september still ongoing strong swallow 3 all fledged young flying over the stream long tailed tit 20 altogether 58 different ltt were caught chiffchaff 25 steadily through to mid october willow warbler 4 none after 3rd week august except 1 at beginning of september possibly of the high arctic race blackcap 44 virtually dried up at the very end of september garden warbler 1 a straggler on 19th september sedge warbler 1 early august abnormal to catch any more here after then treecreeper 1 not caught one in the garden since 2011 wren 12 always an october speciality first thing in the morning dipper 2 young birds but not the ones now on territory blackbird 18 wintering thrushes appeared from 3rd week in october song thrush 2 as blackbird redwing 5 as blackbird robin 23 stopped moving through by middle of september dunnock 15 house sparrow 24 pied wagtail 1 the male at least 5 years old with a club foot was seen at the end of july there have been very few visits by any pw since then chaffinch 15 20 of those caught have fpv a papilloma virus and are not ringed bullfinch 1 greenfinch 45 youngsters until mid august then virtually absent until the 3rd week in september when longer winged birds started to appear goldfinch 372 i have extracted 742 different individuals so far this year a major dispersal southwards has been going on for the last 7 weeks and accounts for most of the new birds ringed siskin 15 started to turn up during the last week in september we have had a few controls somebody else s rings and recoveries when my birds are found elsewhere but none have been further away than 15 km still waiting to hear about the french blackcap caught in march retraps of note are a male goldfinch at least 6 years old ringed in january 2011 and a second ringed as a juvenile also in 2011 a blue tit ringed as an immature in 2011 and another as a juvenile in 2012 and another goldfinch ringed by neighbour john in 2011 for which i await details...