Blog
Wednesday 12th Nov, saw the team attempt to catch some of the large number of Starlings roosting in the reedbeds. There have been a lot of Redwing in the area --so we also put up a few nets to try for them. ( Last night we caught 8 Redwing and a Chiffchaff--a real taste of Summer and Winter together!)
General nets didn't catch many birds--but quality was there--one each of Redwing, Fieldfare and Kingfisher.
The reedbed was alive with Starlings and we caught quite a lot--but as often happens many escaped before we could get to them. However, we ended up with 16 Starlings, 14 Reed Bunting, and a Water Rail.
Although open to dispute, the feeling is that those Starlings in reedbed roosts are more likley to have come from 'wilder' eastern populations. The only way we will find out is by trying to catch as many as we can to increase the chance of some of them being recaught in their breeding areas--if only.....
We have resumed our ringing contacts with Rodbaston College, where we hope to have a few different types of ringing activity. The main effort will be around a feeding station which is currently attracting very large numbers of Goldfinch, Siskin, Greenfinch and Chaffinch--along with many tits. We had a preliminary attempt last week to get the net site prepared but had our first 'real' try on Friday afternoon from 2pm. As expected, we caught a lot of birds--50 new birds including 16 Goldfinch. We are taking quite a lot of biometric and other data--weights, wing lengths, air temp, wind speed; in order to provide the college and students with materials which some may want to use for various aspects of their studies.
The other area we are very interested in is a small field planted for game cover which is also attracting a lot of birds, Goldfinch, Siskin, Brambling, Tree Sparrow, Yellowhammer--and the findings here could be very inetersting in terms of simple things which farmers can do to support bird populations over the winter months--more about this after we have tried a ringing session.
Misha Markovets made contact today having returned to St Petersburg from the Kaliningrad Region. During October at the ringing station at Fringilla (rybachy type traps) they caught & ringed 15,000 birds which included the irruption of Nutcrackers (siberian race). What was outstanding besides the numbers is that only Misha and Anatol Shapoval were ringing. There were no English ringers visiting this year. Please check out assorted photographs for interesting photo of the Nutcrakers.
We have extended the season this year--but to little effect in that the two sessions resulted in only 28 new birds. Although there was a handful of Chiffchaffs and Goldcrests, the reality is that it is not really worth carrying on. We will be producing a report in due course which will be advertised on the home page.
We are also hoping to follow Steve Nuttall's hunch that we could do well with Redwings later in October as they spend quite some time feeding in the scrubby bushes of the netting area. We are also hoping that good numbers of Snipe may also make it worth having a go.
Finally, we may have a try at the feeder by the Gazebo, and if a Reed Bunting/Starling roost develops in the reedbeds they can produce some really surprising results.
As always, we will try to advertise in advance--but during winter it's even more difficult to predict the weather very far in advance; so if you are interested, please keep a close eye on this site and the Belvide site.
Also keep an eye out in a few weeks time for our report of the up-coming ringing trip to Portugal.....