A quiet morning...28/3/26

Four of us set six nets around the reed bed & feeders. It was pretty cold at the start, and as it warmed up the wind increased, so not ideal conditions. It proved to be a very quiet session, with only 12 birds caught, of which 9 were re-traps. Having low numbers is actually good for training as you can take the time to explain the various ageing features, and having re-traps is useful as you can check the accuracy of your conclusions against earlier records. So, although quiet, it was a very pleasant training session!

Our three Blackbirds were an interesting set. 

The first was an adult male (age code 6), ringed as an adult in August last year, which had a lovely uniform black plumage, apart from one white feather in the left wing. 

Adult male Blackbird

Uniform adult wing....with one white feather!

Next came an adult female Blackbird (age code 6), first ringed as an adult in October 2024, which had a nice uniform brown plumage. This bird had a large well defined brood patch (code BP2), so she's probably started or completed a clutch of eggs.

Adult female Blackbird

Adult female wing

Our third Blackbird was an un-ringed male, which had a very obvious moult limit, with the brown juvenile flight feathers & Primary Coverts contrasting with the new black feathers replaced as part of its post-juvenile moult.

Male Blackbird, hatched last year  (age code 5)

Wing of male Blackbird hatched last year (age code 5)

One of the other re-traps was a Blue Tit which had been ringed as a young bird in August 2022. The life expectancy of a Blue Tit is about 3 years, so it's already doing quite well.

	Ringed	Re-trapped
Chiffchaff	1	1
Blackbird	1	2
Wren		1
Dunnock		2
Sing Thrush		1
Blue Tit		2
Chaffinch	1
	3	9

Pastures New: A Ringing Away Day 25/2/26

The group was invited to ring on a farm in the Blackdown Hills where one of our members regularly rings. The farm is predominantly arable with areas of woodland. The ringing sites are well provisioned with bird feeders and these were all topped up for our visit. As there were seven of us we were able to set some 100 metres of net. We caught 194 birds in total. The majority were finches, attracted by the feeders, and of these siskin was the most numerous species followed by chaffinch and goldfinch.

This is a male siskin characterised by the dark crown.

This is the siskin from above. It is an age code 5 (born last year) showing new rounded adult tail feathers (1) together with the pointed feathers (2) that are yet to be replaced and is typical of an immature bird. This individual also shows one old and dull (3) and two new colourful tertial feathers (4).

These are two of the five Great-spotted Woodpeckers that we caught. The male with his crimson nape is shown above and the female with her black nape is shown below.

Later in the year we may catch a juvenile which has red crown unlike either the male or female adults.

Many Passerine species typically have pointed tail feathers in their first year of life. These are replaced by the rounded feathers of the adult. Above is the tail of a male greenfinch showing a pointed tail feather yet to be replaced by the adult form. This makes it an age code 5 (born last year). Interestingly, in this particular individual the juvenile feather has been retained since feathers are usually replaced from the centre outwards and so the outer tail feathers are usually the last to be replaced.

We caught two yellowhammers. We decided that the slightly more colourful bird on the left in this photo was a male and the other more streaked bird on the right a female.

Above is one the nine Lesser Redpoll that were caught. This male is characterised by his rose-coloured chest and bright crown while the female, below, is overall duller.

Of the 194 birds that wecaught 63% were new birds and 37% were re-traps.

Mist netting 17/2, Abberton Trap & African Recovery

On Tues 17th Feb, just Ian & myself had a session, setting 5 nets around the feeders & reeds near the Discovery Hut.  It was very quiet, but we did catch 16 birds of 9 species.

	Ringed	Retrapped
Blackbird	1
Blue Tit		3
Chiffchaff	2
Great Tit		4
Long-tailed Tit		1
Mallard	1
Reed Bunting	1
Song Thrush	2
Treecreeper		1
	7	9

The two Song Thrushes were age code 5 (hatched last year) with 3 unmoulted Greater Coverts (see photo).

Song Thrush

Song Thrush wing, age code 5 (hatched last year)

During the last few sessions,  there's been quite a lot of standing (and running!) water near to the feeder nets & several pairs of Mallards have been milling about. This time Ian decided to try & encourage one into the net, and he succeeded, much to our excitement! The Group has a registered colour-ringing project targeting Mallard, which are in decline in the UK. As our Abberton duck trap was dismantled last year to allow the scrapes to be dredged, we'd not yet  managed to catch a Mallard & put on one of our rings. A metal BTO ring was put on the Mallard, followed by the first of our colour-rings. However, the glue we used to hold the ring at the right diameter wouldn't hold, so we had to remove it. Very disappointing, but at least we'd discovered the problem so can source a different type of glue before we catch any more. 

Ian, having just taken the female Mallard from the net

Very well behaved Mallard being fitted with a BTO ring

The colour ring that went on & then came off again! 

The Mallard was a female, and we aged it as a Code 5 (hatched last year), based on the presence of an old Tertial & the shape of the black tips on the Greater Coverts.

Mallard wing showing Speculum (blue Secondaries) & GCs

Mallard Tertials 

Although this Mallard went off without its colour ring, yesterday five of us spent five hours erecting the Abberton duck trap which had been removed last year. Doug had worked out what repairs were needed & came equipped with the materials & tools to make the necessary repairs, clear some reeds & assemble the trap. So, hopefully we'll soon be catching more Mallards & giving them colour rings. Watch this space!

Before.....

During.....

After!

On 18th Feb, we received an exciting report from the BTO about a Reed Warbler that had been ringed by the Group back on 22nd August last year. The bird had been caught that morning at the Kartong Bird Observatory in The Gambia! The bird had been hatched in 2025, and then flown at least 4365km to its wintering grounds. It's the first ever African recovery of a bird ringed by the Group. In an amazing coincidence, another Reed Warbler ringed on Salisbury Plain in August 2024 by Matt Prior was also caught at Kartong Bird Obs on the same morning....it was also his first African recovery.

Reed Warbler BBJ3329

Sand Martin cliff

Work on the Sand Martin cliff continued, and in the end Doug & James removed quite a few of the shelves which make up the entrance tunnels to the nesting chambers. The wooden shelves were replaced with  black drainage pipes, so it will be interesting to see if the Sand Martins have a preference for the old wooden tunnels or the new plastic ones. 

The replaced rotten shelves

Doug inserting one of the new entrance tubes

Each of the 252 nest chambers were opened, inspected & if they had been used, cleaned out. Even though the doors to the nest chambers were clearly marked, it was usually possible to work out if the nests had been used by one or two broods, as the nesting material was generally in much better condition in the single-brood boxes.

Double-brood nest on the left, single on the right

In the two end sections where nest chambers hadn't been used, we put some clean hay as a 'starter nest' as we had heard anecdotal evidence that this may encourage the use of the chamber. In chambers that had been used, we generally removed the old nesting material and left clean sand with 'drag' marks so that it will be easier to see if birds have been into the chamber. The G section, which is the section furthest away from the path has been renamed the 'flea' section. Interestingly, we even found fleas in some of the chambers where there had been no nest, so are wondering if the fleas have come from birds roosting in the chambers over the winter rather than from the Sand Martins.  Any chamber with fleas was emptied completely, and fresh sand added. 

Fleas

There's been other wildlife in the chambers, mainly in the G/flea section:

Giant House Spider (and it was a giant!)

Peacock Butterfly

Moth cases....a few were infested

False Black Widow? 

Our Sand Martins probably overwinter in Senegal, and they should be leaving there this month, arriving back here in early to mid-March. We're looking forward to welcoming them, and hope they'll be happy with our house-keeping activities!

Mist netting 7/2/26

Ordinarily we may well have cancelled the session on Saturday morning as the forecast was iffy to say the least. However, as we were going to be on site anyway for the afternoon's AGM, we decided to give it a go. We were late starting to set up due to a deluge, but once the rain stopped, three of us put up four nets in the reeds & feeders behind the Discovery Hut. We only put up one feeder net rather than the usual two as the brook had burst its bank in one place & overtopped it in another, so was actually running through the second net ride. We were later joined by two new members who had an introduction to ringing, and who will hopefully be joining us again. 

We actually caught a few birds, with a nice range of species. We caught two Kingfishers, or rather three but one escaped before we could get to it.  It's always nice to be able to show birds to visitors to the reserve, and explain what ringing's all about.  Kingfishers are always a favourite, and we were sent some amazing photos taken by visitor Helen Warren. 

Helen also captured a lovely close-up of a Wren. 

One of the retraps was a female Blackbird originally ringed on 3/6/24. As an adult, the feathers of the wing were all uniform, and the tail was broad & in good condition. 

Adult female Blackbird

Wing of adult Blackbird

Tail of adult Blackbird

We had to close the nets a few times during showers, but on the whole it wasn't as wet as forecast & we were treated to a rather nice rainbow.

	Ringed	Retrapped
Blackbird		2
Blue Tit	2
Chaffinch	3	1
Chiffchaff	1
Dunnock	1	2
Greenfinch	1
Kingfisher	1	1
Treecreeper	1
Wren		1
	10	7