The largest team we've had in ages assembled at the Discovery Hut at 0630 with the intention of ringing in the 'cropfield' at Colyford Common. We loaded the kit onto a wheelbarrow & were just about to leave when the heavens opened. We decided to stay in the vicinity of the Discovery Hut in case of further showers, so put up nets in the usual areas around the reed beds & feeder area.
We caught 60 birds of 12 species, with Reed Bunting being by far the most numerous bird. We'll be targeting Reed Buntings over the winter, so it will be interesting to see if we retrap any of them.
Most of the Reed Buntings were juveniles, but there were a few adults. Ageing is quite difficult, and our decisions were mostly based on tail shape & wear.
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| Reed Buntings |
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| Left: rounded adult tail in good condition. Right: pointed, worn juvenile tail |
Each bird caught is aged & sexed if possible, and the basic biometrics of wing length & weight are taken. Wrens can be a challenge to extract from the mist net used to catch them, and can also be a challenge to age. This wren was hatched this year & luckily had an obvious moult limit, ie the point between two generations of feathers. The Old Greater Coverts (OGCs) grown in the nest are a more rufous colour than the new, more bronzy coloured Greater Coverts which have been replaced the juvenile coverts as part of the post-juvenile moult.
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| Measurement of a Wren's wing length |
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| Wing of juvenile Wren (age code 3) |
We play the songs and/or calls of birds we hope to catch in order to try & improve our chances of catching them. We hadn't caught a Reed or Sedge Warbler since 25th Sept, so their songs had been removed from the lures. However, we caught one of each during this session, which is very late in the season to do so.
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| A very late Sedge Warbler (Photo: Brendan Shiels) |
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| Most of the Team, hard at work at the Discovery Hut |
Ringed | Retrapped | |
Blackcap | 3 | |
Blue Tit | 4 | 2 |
Cetti’s Warbler | 2 | 1 |
Chiffchaff | 5 | 1 |
Dunnock | 2 | 1 |
Goldcrest | 4 | |
Reed Bunting | 27 | |
Reed Warbler | 1 | |
Robin | 2 | |
Sedge Warbler | 1 | |
Stonechat | 2 | 1 |
Wren | 1 | |
52 | 8 |
