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