Martin Mere

No ringing this week but I did get the chance to pop along to Martin Mere where I got to see ‘Mega Goose Day’. During late afternoon what seemed like an endless stream of Pink-Footed Geese fell out of the sky (20,000 estimate).

I also saw the colour ringed Whooper Swan U7L - it was fitted with a transmitter as part of the WWTs project to track Whooper Swan migration between their breeding grounds in Iceland and their wintering grounds in Britain and Ireland; the transmitter was later removed in Caerlaverock (Scotland) as the mount was seen to be damaged. Progress of other birds in the project can be followed at:
http://whooper.wwt.org.uk/whooper/full-map

Timble Ings

Today I got out to Timble with Sean and Andy from Wharfedale and Calderdale Wild Bird Ringing. A different habitat to my usual site so more Redwing, Goldcrest and Fieldfare present in the area. Circa 100 Crossbill have been reported there recently but no luck seeing them today.

Yet more Redpoll

I didn’t ring myself today but the rest of the group did. Looks like they had another good day with over 100 birds ringed including more Lesser Redpoll and what must be our last Blackcap of the year. In addition, DZ got to ring his first Kingfisher.

Blackcap ringed on 18 October 2009 (D Bass)

Kingfisher ringed on 18 October 2009 (D Bass)

102 Birds ringed in total. Kingfisher (1), Wren (2), Robin (1), Blackbird (18), Song Thrush (12), Redwing (1), Blackcap (1), Marsh Tit (1), Coal Tit (1), Tree Sparrow (18), Chaffinch (1), Goldfinch (14), Lesser Redpoll (26), Reed Bunting (5).

Here come the Redpoll

It was quiet at first today so we got the breakfast on. At that point, Redpoll started flying into the net at a rate of about one a minute and they were even flying in as we stood there extracting the rest of the flock.

We passed one of Dave’s sneaky tests today - He extracted a Redwing without us knowing and hung the bag up amongst the Song Thrushes to see if we’d notice.

Also, I got to ring my first Yellowhammer and DZ got to ring his first Jay.

Yellowhammer ringed on 17 October 2009 (A Smith)

132 Birds ringed in total. Wren (7), Dunnock (4), Robin (2), Blackbird (11), Song Thrush (13), Redwing (4), Great Tit (1), Jay (1), Tree Sparrow (19), Greenfinch (2), Goldfinch (11), Lesser Redpoll (56), Yellowhammer (1).

Roost ringing

Having spotted many Redwings over the past few days Dave sent a text round mid-afternoon to see if people were up for some roost ringing; heading to our site straight from work I won best dressed ringer.

In addition to Redwings, Blackbirds and Song Thrushes we managed to re-trap the first bird we ringed on New Years day this year – a Dunnock.

19 Birds ringed in total. Blackbird (7), Song Thrush (9), Redwing (2), Bullfinch (1).

Colour ringed Tree Sparrow

Although it was quieter today, we did have a couple birds of interest. The first of these was a juvenile Jay that was a ringing tick for me - a vicious bird that managed to take a chunk out of Dave’s finger as he removed it from the net.

Jay ringed on 11 October 2009 (A Smith)

Our second bird of interest was a control Tree Sparrow with a metal ring on its right leg and light blue colour ring on the left. Does anybody know what project this was?

Tree Sparrow (A Smith)

75 Birds ringed in total. Wren (2), Dunnock (1), Robin (2), Blackbird (3), Song Thrush (5), Blackcap (6), Coal Tit (1), Blue Tit (6), Jay (1), Tree Sparrow (12), Chaffinch (4), Goldfinch (25), Lesser Redpoll (4), Bullfinch (3).

Fuglekongs

Plenty of birds ringed today, but no Fuglekongs.

156 Birds ringed in total. Wren (3), Dunnock (4), Robin (1), Blackbird (10), Song Thrush (27), Blackcap (8), Chiffchaff (2), Tree Sparrow (63), Chaffinch (10), Greenfinch (1), Goldfinch (22), Siskin (1), Bullfinch (3), Reed Bunting (1).