Roost mist-netting 10/12/24

A very small team assembled at midday to try and catch Reed Buntings coming in to roost. As it's something that the Group hasn't done for a very long time, it was a bit of an experiment. It was rather windy, so 6 nets were set in the more sheltered areas around the reeds & willows to the west of the Discovery Hut. 

The first Chiffchaff was caught almost straight away and was a control, having been ringed somewhere other than the Wetlands. It turned out that the bird was having a bad day, having been caught and ringed earlier the same day by our leader Mike Tyler at his own site at the Colyton Waste Water Treatment Works further up the River Axe. A short time later another interesting Chiffchaff was caught, this one looking much paler & greyer than normal, so possibly a Siberian Chiffchaff (Phylloscopus collybita tristis).

Possible Siberian Chiffchaff

Possible Siberian Chiffchaff

We caught our first Reed Buntings just after 2pm, but it wasn't until nearer 4pm that they really started to arrive, and we had our biggest round of 8 Reed Buntings at 5pm, taking our total to 19. Some of the birds were quite easy to age, having obviously pointed juvenile tails, but as quite a few Reed Buntings moult their entire tails during their post juvenile moult, a nice rounded adult tail doesn't necessarily mean that the bird's an adult. Sexing the birds is usually done using the shape of the black centre of the crown feathers, and although most could be sexed in this way, a few were a bit ambiguous. The presence of white in the collar around the neck & grey feathers on the rump can also assist in sexing, but there were still a couple of birds that were only provisionally sexed.

The bird below was a male, as shown by the rounded shape of the black feather centre, and the slight white collar. The pointed tail indicates that it's a bird hatched this year ie age code 3. 

Reed Bunting 

Pointed tail...age code 3

Rounded black feather centre & white collar....male

The 'Team' & a row of bagged Reed Buntings 

It had been a successful evening, with 39 birds caught in total. An attempt was made to catch owls after the roost, but unfortunately the only owl encountered during the session was the stuffed one in the Discovery Hut. 

	Ringed	Re-trapped	Control
Blackbird		1
Blue Tit		2
Cetti’s Warbler		1
Chiffchaff	5		1
Dunnock	1
Goldcrest		2
Reed Bunting	19
Robin	3	2
Wren	2
	30	8	1

Mist netting, 29/11/24

A last minute session was held in the vicinity of the Discovery Hut. It was a bit windy, but 28 birds were caught and processed.

Cetti's warbler

Chiffchaff

Female Bullfinch 

Goldcrest

	Ringed	Re-trapped
Blackbird	2	3
Blue Tit		1
Bullfinch	1
Cetti’s Warbler		1
Chiffchaff	3	2
Dunnock	1
Goldcrest	4	2
Great Tit	1
Long-tailed Tit	1	6
	13	15

Photos by Mark Wills

Mist netting 15/11/24

No mist netting was scheduled by the Group until March, but as there were a few ringers available & the weather was looking good, we set up an extra session.  It was a cold morning, so we were glad that we were able to use the Reed Base again, and set up 8 nets in the reeds and scrub in the vicinity. 

It was quite slow at first, but as soon as the temperature rose allowing us to play tape lures of the smaller birds, we started catching. It actually turned into a good Chiffchaff day, as we caught 12, with one of the first being a bird that was already wearing a ring. The prefix of the ring number didn't seem familiar to anyone, and a quick check on the BTO database DemOn confirmed that the bird was a 'control' ie it hadn't been ringed by the Group. It's always exciting to catch a bird ringed elsewhere, after all, understanding bird movements is one of the main objectives of bird ringing. We'll have to wait to find out where the bird was ringed, although we know that it was ringed on 27/9/24 and was aged '3' ie hatched this year. 

Control Chiffchaff

One of the common means of ageing a bird is to look for a moult limit between different feather generations in the Greater Coverts. Having looked at hundreds of Goldcrest wings over the years hoping to find a moult limit & failing to find one, today was our lucky day! The photo isn't very good, but it is still possible to see the differently coloured feathers. The old outer Greater Coverts have a browner centre & a pale grey-green edge, whereas the newer inner Greater Coverts have a blacker centre & a darker green edge. 

Goldcrest

Goldcrest wing showing moult limit

An 'Age UK' meeting was scheduled to take place in the Reed Base from 1030, led by ranger Penny. We'd arranged to share the hut & demonstrate our activities to the group. They were all enthusiastic & luckily we caught a nice variety of birds to show them. They were particularly pleased to see Cetti's warblers, as they are a bird usually heard & not seen. We caught 5, including the 4 year old bird that we caught at the last session. 

Demonstrating ringing to the Age UK group. 

One of the last birds to be caught was a male Reed Bunting. They're always a bit tricky to age, and as often happens, we consulted the ringing guides, pondered, and then didn't age the bird as it was sending mixed messages!

Male Reed Bunting 

In total we caught 36 birds of 10 species. 

	Ringed	Re-trapped (date ringed)	Control
Blackbird	2	2 (21/10/24)
Blue Tit	2	2 (21/10/24)
Cetti’s Warbler	3	2 (10/10/20, 26/9/24)
Chiffchaff	11		1 (27/9/24)
Dunnock		1 (21/10/24)
Goldcrest	3
Great Tit	2
Reed Bunting	1
Robin	1
Wren	2	1 (21/10/24)
	27	8	1

 

Mist netting 21/10/24

There was a good turn out for today's mist netting session, with 9 members attending. The old 'feeders' area (where no feeders are currently in use), had been cut back by the Wetland volunteers, and Dave, the Wild East Devon ranger,  had strimmed some great  rides in the reeds. We therefore based ourselves in the Reed Base and set 7 nets to make use of the newly cleared areas. It was the first time that we've ringed in this area since September 2022.

We caught 36 birds of 12 species. The star bird was an unexpected Kingfisher, a female that was hatched this year. 

Kingfisher: female as the red lower mandible is >1/3 of the bill length 

The brown tops of the feet indicate it was hatched this year

We caught 2 Blackcaps during the session. This male was hatched this year, as indicated by the small amount of brown in the black cap & the presence of 2 generations of feathers in the wing. The inner 9 Greater Coverts have been renewed since the bird hatched, and have a nice olive-grey edge. The outer Greater Covert is is an old feather, as are the Carpal Covert & Primary Coverts. These feathers are duller with a browner fringe, contrasting with the new Greater Coverts. 

Blackcap male: black cap with small brown tips. 

Blackcap wing 

It was a great session for Stonechats, as we caught 4 around the edges of the reed bed. All 4 birds had been hatched this year, 2 were male & 2 female. The male Stonechat below has no old Greater Coverts, but there is a clear contrast between the new black Greater Coverts & 2 upper Alula feathers,  and the older brown Primary Coverts & lower Alula feather.

Male Stonechat, with black face & white neck

Male Stonechat wing

Female Stonechat

We caught 3 new Cetti's warblers, and re-trapped one that was originally ringed on 10/10/20 as a bird hatched that year, ie it is now 4 years old. He had also been caught on 17/4/21 & 18/11/21.  The typical lifespan of a Cetti's is 2 years, so he's doing quite well, although the maximum known age from ringing is 9 years 3 months & 28 days. Hopefully we'll keep catching him until it reaches a ripe old age! I say 'he' as he could be sexed due to having a very long wing length of 66mm.  

4 year old Cetti's Warbler

Part of the Team in our luxury ringing base!

	New	Re-trapped (date ringed)
Blackbird	3
Blackcap	2
Blue Tit	6
Cetti’s Warbler	3	1 (10/10/20)
Chiffchaff	3
Dunnock	4
Goldcrest	1
Kingfisher	1
Robin	2	1 (27/8/22)
Song Thrush	1
Stonechat	4
Wren	3	1 (26/9/24)
	33	3