Pastures New: A Ringing Away Day 25/2/26

The group was invited to ring on a farm in the Blackdown Hills where one of our members regularly rings. The farm is predominantly arable with areas of woodland. The ringing sites are well provisioned with bird feeders and these were all topped up for our visit. As there were seven of us we were able to set some 100 metres of net. We caught 194 birds in total. The majority were finches, attracted by the feeders, and of these siskin was the most numerous species followed by chaffinch and goldfinch.

This is a male siskin characterised by the dark crown.

This is the siskin from above. It is an age code 5 (born last year) showing new rounded adult tail feathers (1) together with the pointed feathers (2) that are yet to be replaced and is typical of an immature bird. This individual also shows one old and dull (3) and two new colourful tertial feathers (4).

These are two of the five Great-spotted Woodpeckers that we caught. The male with his crimson nape is shown above and the female with her black nape is shown below.

Later in the year we may catch a juvenile which has red crown unlike either the male or female adults.

Many Passerine species typically have pointed tail feathers in their first year of life. These are replaced by the rounded feathers of the adult. Above is the tail of a male greenfinch showing a pointed tail feather yet to be replaced by the adult form. This makes it an age code 5 (born last year). Interestingly, in this particular individual the juvenile feather has been retained since feathers are usually replaced from the centre outwards and so the outer tail feathers are usually the last to be replaced.

We caught two yellowhammers. We decided that the slightly more colourful bird on the left in this photo was a male and the other more streaked bird on the right a female.

Above is one the nine Lesser Redpoll that were caught. This male is characterised by his rose-coloured chest and bright crown while the female, below, is overall duller.

Of the 194 birds that wecaught 63% were new birds and 37% were re-traps.