Two weeks have passed

In those two weeks things have moved closer to the shortest daylength, now just five weeks away, and there has been a small amount of movement. During weeks 45 & 46 in other years (all three, big deal), I have caught 21 different species and averaged 26.33 new birds per week. The only species that has been trapped but not turned up as a new bird is the Long-tailed Tit. This year, I have achieved 32.00 new birds per week covering just 14 species. Below I've tabulated all 21 species, with the average number of new birds over the last three years alongside this years.

1CY female Chiffchaff

1CY male Chiffchaff

These are the two Chiffs from this period. Athough the same species and approximately the same age, they look much different (and not just because of my photography skills). This female was greener and yellower than the male. It was a pity that my new trainees were not around when these were caught, but there will be plenty of opportunity for that at a later date, rest assured.

As you may be aware, I love my 'Stillits' (that's Norwegian for Goldfinch) and I'm having a good year for them. Of the 14 retraps, 5 were males, the oldest 467 and 348 days from ringing, the others ringed as juveniles this year. The other nine were females, three of which were returning adults, the rest all juveniles with the oldest ringed back at the beginning of July. Female Goldfinch X105685 was ringed 1397 days previously as a 3CY bird. She will be about five and a half years old by now. It happens to be the 92nd Goldfinch that I ringed, in my first ten days here, while there was snow on the ground. [See http://masterringer.blogspot.co.uk/2011/01/king-of-kings.html] With a long history of being caught in different months, I suspect that she breeds and remains locally.

Note: average new for weeks 45/46 shown in square brackets [-] thus. As always, current retraps, counted once only if more than one re-capture during this period, in brackets (-).
Collared Dove [0.67] - 1; a 1CY bird from early in the year
Gt. Spot. Woodpecker [0.33] - 0; a cracking adult male, noisy too!
Magpie [0.33] - 0
Goldcrest [2.33] - 2 (1); both males, one an adult renewing part of its tail that "came adrift" elsewhere
Blue Tit [10.00] - 7 (4); two adults, the rest youngsters
Great Tit [1.00] - 1 (1)
Coal Tit [0.67] - 1
Long-tailed Tit [0.00] - 0
Chiffchaff [0.67] - 2; 1CY of opposite sexes
Blackcap [3.67] - 2; both males, the first a full adult (Euring age 4)
Wren [1.00] - 0
Blackbird [4.67] - 2; both young males (probably fairly local, going by wing legth)
Song Thrush [0.67] - 0
Redwing [0.67] - 0
Robin [1.00] - 2 (2)
Dunnock [1.33] - 0 (2)
House Sparrow [2.33] - 1 (1)
Chaffinch [2.00] - 1
Greenfinch [4.33] - 1
Goldfinch [14.67] - 39 (14)
Siskin [0.33] - 0

However, the following period started with a Sparrowhawk, a Gt. Spotted Woodpecker, a Goldcrest and another Blackcap (makes eight so far this season), all of which would have improved the figures. I get the impression that autumn has been about two weeks late this year (compared to recent years) and as yet we haven't seen any Redwing movements and many of the trees are still carrying a lot of leaf. More about them in a fortnight's time, fingers crossed.

We're on the move

Things have been a little slow of late, hence the long interval between posts, but there seems to be some movement just recently. Over the past three weeks, my new bird totals have been 17, 17 and 34 - and the weekly species total has risen to twelve.

First year male Goldfinch completing PJ moult (October)

Naturally, at this time of year, Goldfinches have returned to Number 1 spot, with 18 new birds and 9 retraps last week, despite the periods of wind and rain that hamper much of our ringing hereabouts.  I am well over 500 new for the year already - with the main influx of newbies still to come (hopefully) - plus 72 individuals from last year, 14 from 2012 and 7 from the year before, my first here.

First year male Blackcap (October)

Same bird - underside (note the pale yellow flush)

The other tell-tale sign of winter is the catching of Blackcaps; the first (a 1CY male) on the 18th was right on cue, then another (1CY female) on the 22nd and three more since. I checked on the number of birds that were ringed in the orchard last winter (November - mid-March); it came to 22 birds, with two of those returning from previous winters.

Fun shot of a male Goldcrest's crown feathers

Another sign of the impending short days was the presence of a few new Goldcrests. The species breeds quite locally to us and I retrap birds from March to June, but after that it's only the odd new bird until the clocks go back when we then expect some winter arrivals, most likely passage birds heading for the Exmoor forests to the south-east of us. 

The bird that is missing so far - is Redwing. I saw one locally on the 14th and then a flock of 18 on the 25th. There was a major arrival on the north-east coast of England overnight on 28/29th so it will be another week or so before we see them regularly and, hopefully, one or two in the net.

Perversely, we saw a Swallow hurriedly heading south over the house on the 22nd in the late afternoon! Our local birds left ages ago.

The composite list for the last three weeks is: 

[same period retraps omitted]

Gt. Spotted Woodpecker 1 - adult male

Goldcrest 3

Blue Tit 1 (5)

Great Tit 1 (1)

Long-tailed Tit 4 (6)

Chiffchaff 1 - hatch year female

Blackcap 5

Wren 3 (3) - all young birds

Blackbird 2 (3) - just the 1 adult (female), retrapped

Robin (3)

Dunnock 2 (5)

House Sparrow 5 (6)

Chaffinch 1

Greenfinch 1

Goldfinch 38 (18)

118 birds of which 68 were new birds

Immature male Great Tit. Note the large, shiny bib.

One piece of late news - the southern end of the meadows has been fenced off, the horses now confined to the northern section. This means we can put nets up again, not just while the hay crop is growing.