Blog
Tuesday saw us try at the feeder station on the Chase for the first time this winter. I miscalculated sunrise and we got there about half an hour too late--the site erupted with birds as we arrived. Two nets were quickly erected and the first catch was very good with 34 birds of a good range of species including 3 cracking male Brambling, 6 Redpoll including a control 5 Bullfinch and 4 Robin. Things dropped off quickly after the first catch and we ended up with a slightly disappointing 54 new birds, with quite a few Chaffinch--but no Siskin or Goldfinch--nor any more Brambling. However, the site looks good for a while yet, especially as these cold temperatures persist
It has been a very mild winter and feeding stations and roosts have been generally quiet--with a couple of exceptions. The first exception has been the Reed Bunting roost at Belvide. We have had 2 visits in 2012 and ringed another 25 new birds bringing the total number of new birds ringed in the reeds since the end of october to almost 350! This is many more than we expected, and an analysis of the retraps shows that some birds are hanging around while there is a definite in/outflow of birds. We hope that some of these will be recaptured by others to see just wher they are coming from.
Secondly, the mild weather has kept a lot of Redwing in the area since they have not carried on south to France/Spain. A large Blackthorn bush is being favoured as a roost site by this species and to date we have ringed 30 birds over the last few weeks--not a lot, but more than we have ever done at Belvide.
Team members have carried out a couple of very successful public demonstrations at Northicote Farm catching lots of birds and enthusing lots of visitors, great news.
Finally, we have been getting some tips from Tony Cross in mid Wales who has shown us how to catch roosting waders--we hope to ba able to emulate him this year--watch this space!
A small group of us used the really mild conditions this afternoon to have another try at the larger reedbed at Belvide--and try a couple of nets by the Redwing roost bush. 17 new reed bunts and 4 redwing was a decent catch for not a lot of effort. It gave our trainees some great experience of the whole process at a steady pace. probably no more until after Boxing day--but you never know...
Many apologies for lack of updates--no excuses other than bone-ideleness. Anyway, various members of the group have been engaged in several activities since the last blog posting:-
Several trips to the reedbeds at Belvide have resulted in record-breaking catches of Reed Bunting, with a current total of just under 250 new birds with 2 controls from where we don't as yet know. We are trying again soon so we will let readers know the final 2011 tally.
A small group put on a ringing demonstration for Wolverhampton City Council on Saturday. Very successful it was too, with quite a few visitors, and lots of birds both for the visitors to see--and for our trainees to get experience. Most of the birds were tits, but some Greenfinch, Goldfinch, Great spotted Woodpeckers added variety and interest.
Glynn and colin visited our friend Fergus in deepest Worcestershire on a bright crisp morning last Sunday. he has found a superb orchard with lots of apples still around. We had 10 Fieldfare and a good selection of 14 species totalling 50 birds. This site will be really good if ever we get a really hard sustained frost because the thrushes will pour in to feed on the apples. We have found that they prefer feeding on invertebrates, then berries with apples as a last resort.
Trips to the new site at Aqualate have been a bit disappointing with 28 Starlings the biggest catch ( out of about 40,000!!). However, it's early days and we are still getting to know the site. We are looking to 2012 to reallt start generating some interesting results.
Last night a select band tried a new venture at Belvide. We had suspected that Redwing were roosting in a big Blackthorn stand so we gave it a try. Bingo. 12 Redwing, 2 Song thrush and a Sparrowhawk.
We've had a couple of reedbed roost sessions this week with very different results. On Thursday we tried for the Starling roost at Aqualate. Only a small number of nets because we didn't want to get swamped by the several thousand birds roosting. No need to fear, they all dropped in on the opposite side of the lake. final score= 2 Reed bunting!
Tonight we went back to Belvide and caught 45 new Reed bunting in the Scott hide reedbed, with 3 retraps from 2 weeks ago. this means we have ringed around 140 of this species roosting at the reserve--and given the small number of retraps it suggests that there is a bit of movement through the site. we will give it another couple of weeks and try again