Some improvement

Some say. I say. 68 birds caught this week even though the weather was up and down. Around half of all birds were from the finch family and possibly represents the end of their 'migration' through the area. On Friday, we had the first Redwings on the Holly trees, albeit just two. One or two Fieldfares are around the village and one of the Mistle Thrushes has reappeared. The wagtails, Pied and Grey, now flit back and forth daily over the garden, to what purpose I have no idea. 

The Crow family down the lane have become more obvious too, with several irritable (if you can apply that to a bird) inter-changes, presumably between the parents and their dilatory offspring. A question of "big enough and old enough" springs to mind. The Chiff at the back of the garden, and the other one down the lane, have been silent this week; most likely this is because I've not ventured out early enough, given the rather dank weather.

Now for the list covering last Saturday (10th) to Friday:

Collared Dove 1 - a fully fledged youngster

Goldcrest 2         

Blue Tit 8 (1)

Great Tit 2 (2)

Coal Tit 1 (1)

Blackbird 5 (1)

Robin (1)

Dunnock (1)

House Sparrow 7 (1) - just 2 were female

Chaffinch 3 - all adult

Greenfinch 9 (2) - females outnumbered males 2:1

Goldfinch 15 (2) - 50:50 split on age; 60:40 M:F

Siskin 1

Total = 54 (14 retraps), 13 species.

On three consecutive days, I controlled another ringer's bird. It so happens that it was one each from the other local ringers, situate 2, 8 & 15 km in more or less a westerly direction. They were all adult birds, caught during the spring of this year, the nearest one a male Goldfinch, the other two were Greenfinches, one of each sex.

I've been looking at my tit catches over the previous 90 days. It shows how bad a breeding season the Blue and Great Tits have had when compared to Coal Tit. The "Age Specific" analysis, which covers the breeding season itself, shows little or no change from last year's figures for the "big boys". The current catches contain 38% adults for Blue Tit and almost the same, at 39%, for Great Tit. The much smaller Coal Tit, meanwhile, only has 11% adult 'content', a much more realistic figure. It can be partially explained by the fact that Coal Tits nest in the coniferous plantations, which are much drier, least ways beneath the canopy, and that must have been an advantage this year.