Four of us set six nets around the reed bed & feeders. It was pretty cold at the start, and as it warmed up the wind increased, so not ideal conditions. It proved to be a very quiet session, with only 12 birds caught, of which 9 were re-traps. Having low numbers is actually good for training as you can take the time to explain the various ageing features, and having re-traps is useful as you can check the accuracy of your conclusions against earlier records. So, although quiet, it was a very pleasant training session!
Our three Blackbirds were an interesting set.
The first was an adult male (age code 6), ringed as an adult in August last year, which had a lovely uniform black plumage, apart from one white feather in the left wing.
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| Adult male Blackbird |
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| Uniform adult wing....with one white feather! |
Next came an adult female Blackbird (age code 6), first ringed as an adult in October 2024, which had a nice uniform brown plumage. This bird had a large well defined brood patch (code BP2), so she's probably started or completed a clutch of eggs.
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| Adult female Blackbird |
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| Adult female wing |
Our third Blackbird was an un-ringed male, which had a very obvious moult limit, with the brown juvenile flight feathers & Primary Coverts contrasting with the new black feathers replaced as part of its post-juvenile moult.
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| Male Blackbird, hatched last year (age code 5) |
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| Wing of male Blackbird hatched last year (age code 5) |
One of the other re-traps was a Blue Tit which had been ringed as a young bird in August 2022. The life expectancy of a Blue Tit is about 3 years, so it's already doing quite well.
Ringed | Re-trapped | |
Chiffchaff | 1 | 1 |
Blackbird | 1 | 2 |
Wren | 1 | |
Dunnock | 2 | |
Sing Thrush | 1 | |
Blue Tit | 2 | |
Chaffinch | 1 | |
3 | 9 |
