The team met at 730, and after a walk through the reserve with the kit, 8 nets were set around the reed bed & the 'crop field' at the Colyford Common end of the reserve. There was no frost or snow, and there was little wind, so it didn't feel too cold. Although we didn't catch a huge number of birds (31), we had a great variety with 16 species, which included a control Dunnock ie a bird ringed at a different site. We'll have to wait to find out where the bird was ringed, although we know it was ringed on 23/8/2023.
We caught 2 Reed Buntings, one new & one that we caught at the roost near the Discovery Hut on 10/12/24.
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| Male Reed Bunting from the December roost catch |
We caught a Treecreeper, which isn't a bird we catch very often on the reserve, with this being only the 23rd over the last decade. They're well adapted for their lifestyle, being well camouflaged against tree bark, with long sharp claws for clinging to trees, stiff tail feathers for propping them up as they climb, and a long curved bill for probing cracks & crevices for insects. Once they've completed their post juvenile & post breeding moults, it's very difficult to age a Treecreeper. It may be possible to use the shape of the pale tip of the outer Primary Covert, but it's a feature that's shown as being highly variable and to 'use with caution'. Using this criteria, that the pale tip may spread along the shaft in young birds and be smaller in adults, this could have been a bird hatched last year (age code 5), but it was left un-aged due to the uncertainty of using this feature.
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| Treecreeper |
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| Treecreeper |
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| Outer Primary Covert (arrowed) |
We caught 2 Meadow Pipits in the nets beside the reed bed. The one shown below was aged as a 5 as it had a clear moult limit in its Greater Coverts, with the new inner 2 being edged a much darker buff colour than the paler edged outer 8.
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| Meadow Pipit |
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| Meadow Pipit Greater Coverts |
Our most surprising bird of the day was a Kingfisher, a bird more usually caught during sessions around the Discovery Hut. This bird was a male, indicated by the lack of any red on the bill.
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| Male Kingfisher |
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| Kingfisher |
We had company a couple of times during the morning......
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| Fox: Photo by Robin Pearson |
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| The Team ringing on the Colyford Common viewing platform |
Ringed | Re-trapped | Control | |
Blue Tit | 4 | ||
Cetti’s Warbler | 2 | ||
Chiffchaff | 2 | ||
Dunnock | 1 | 1 (22/8/23) | |
Goldcrest | 2 | 1 (30/11/24) | |
Great Tit | 1 | 1 (15/8/23) | |
Greenfinch | 1 | ||
House Sparrow | 2 | ||
Kingfisher | 1 | ||
Long-tailed Tit | 1 (26/9/24) | ||
Meadow Pipit | 2 | ||
Reed Bunting | 1 | 1 (10/12/24) | |
Robin | 1 | ||
Sonechat | 1 | ||
Treecreeper | 1 | ||
Wren | 4 | ||
26 | 4 | 1 |
