Meadow Pipit |
Wing of Meadow Pipit (age code 3) |
We've done very well for Kingfishers so far this year, & we caught two during this session, one new & one that had been ringed on 3/8/25. The new bird was a female hatched this year, as shown by the large amount of red on the bottom mandible, & the dark brown colouration on the top of the feet.
Young female Kingfisher |
We haven't caught many Great Spotted Woodpeckers recently, so it was nice to catch one that had probably been feeding on peanuts in the small woodland feeder. Due to the risk of disease, we don't keep the feeders filled permanently, but just top them up for the few days before a ringing session. They're always very feisty & it's unusual to process one without blood flowing....ours not theirs! This bird had red feathers on the back of its head, which indicates that it's a male & two generations of feathers in the wing, indicating that it was hatched this year (age code 3)
Male Great Spotted Woodpecker |
Bird of the day though was a gorgeous Firecrest. They've become more common in England in recent years, but this is only the second ever caught on the Seaton Wetlands, the first having been caught on 5th November 2019. Although there was some orange in the crown stripe, we decided it would have been brighter in a male, & therefore we provisionally sexed this as female. The tail was very pointed, as were the alula feathers, which also had very pale edges, so therefore this appears to be a bird hatched this year (age code 3).
Young female Firecrest |
It had been a very successful morning. Although this wasn't officially a public session, we'd drawn quite a crowd, and they were also very pleased to see the Firecrest.
Ringed | Retrapped | |
Blackbird | 1 | |
Blackcap | 2 | |
Blue Tit | 3 | 5 |
Cetti’s Warbler | 3 | 1 |
Chaffinch | 1 | 2 |
Chiffchaff | 15 | 1 |
Dunnock | 3 | 4 |
Firecrest | 1 | |
Great Spotted Woodpecker | 1 | |
Great Tit | 2 | |
Kingfisher | 1 | 1 |
Long-tailed Tit | 2 | |
Meadow Pipit | 2 | |
Reed Bunting | 3 | |
Robin | 3 | |
Song Thrush | 1 | |
Wood Pigeon | 1 | |
Wren | 5 | 1 |
49 | 16 |