RINGING SESSION 10 - 2012

29/07/2012  The jetsream retreated south again and look what happened! Today's session was basically rained off. The welfare of the birds always comes first and we had to close the nets early. Ten birds is a dismal total, but we did our best!



Today's totals (ringed and retraps) were:  

blackbird(4,0)

bullfinch (1,0)
chiffchaff (2,0)
reed warbler (1,0)
wilwa (2,2)

DAY TOTALS: 10 ringed (5 species), 2 retraps

NEW SPECIES: none

OBS: lots of frogs!

RINGING SESSION 09 - 2012

22/07/2012  Not much to report from this session, except that we ringed a dunnock, a species which has become a bit of a local rarity, as you can see from a plot of our annual ringing totals below. No need for a trendline! There has been a similar long term decline for robin and wren too. The reasons for this are unclear but may be to do with the rising deer population and the effect this is having on the woodland understorey - i.e. removing it!

Annual ringing totals - dunnock.

An interesting titbit concerning the dunnock: it belongs to the Accentor family, and Accentors are the only bird family that is endemic to the Western Palearctic (our part of the bird world basically). To my mind, this makes the unassuming dunnock a rather special bird and not just a boring 'hedge sparrow'!



Trapping totals (ringed and retraps) were:  

blackcap (0,1) 
bullfinch (1,0)

chiffchaff (6,0)
dunnock (1,0)
goldfinch (3,0)
great tit (2,0)
reed warbler (3,0)

robin (2,0)

whitethroat (1,0)

willow warbler (3,2)

wren (1,0)

DAY TOTALS: 23 ringed (10 species), 2 retraps

NEW SPECIES: none

OBS: common lizard

RINGING SESSION 08 - 2012

14/07/2012  A welcome break in the weather allowed us to squeeze in a CES session at the last minute. It was good catch by recent standards with a good variety of species caught, including our first goldfinches and lesser whitethroat of the year.

GOLDFICH (JUVENILE)


Today's totals (ringed and retraps) were:  

blackcap (1,1)

blue tit (8,0)
bullfinch (0,1)
chiffchaff (9,1)
dunnock (1,0)

goldfinch (3,0)
lesser whitethroat (1,0)
long-tailed tit (3,0)
reed warbler (1,0)
robin (3,1)
willow warbler (5,0)
wren (4,0)

DAY TOTALS: 39 ringed (11 species), 4 retraps 

NEW SPECIES: spp

OBS:buzzard, great spotted woodpecker, green woodpecker, gey heron and comma butterfly