Wednesday 16 January 2019

First mist netting session for 2019 off to a good start

Yesterday the Group's first mist netting session was a success with 63 birds caught of 14 species. The highlights being a Redwing, rarely caught on the Wetlands and a Teal, although not uncommon is rarely caught in a mist net. The other species were those one would expect, but there was an unusual leucistic Blackbird with several white feathers. Four Bullfinches and seven Long-tailed Tits also graced the catch.

Redwing

Leucistic male Blackbird

Male Bullfinch

Photographs copyright Mark Wills


Monday 14 January 2019

First duck catch for 2019

Our first duck catch for 2019 took place at Seaton Marshes on Saturday 12th January and resulted in a reasonable catch of of 54 birds. These included 47 Shelduck, 5 Mallard, 1 Teal and 1 Wigeon. The previous catch in December resulted in a catch of 20 Shelduck of which eleven were retrapped at this latest session. At the time of firing the cannons all except three Shelduck all those present were caught suggesting at least 63 have visited the site so far this winter. The Shelduck is site loyal species. Hopefully we will catch more Wigeon at our last session in February as there are in the region of 50 birds wintering in the vicinity.

Four teams busy processing the catch

Adult male Teal
Photographs Mike Tyler