It's been a funny old four weeks since I last blogged about bird-ringing. Although I've been able to ring most mornings, the impending Christmas rituals and the presence of a plumber in the bathroom has frustrated my efforts to present this piece to the world.
Over this period, I handled 22 different species. Let's look at some of the more interesting ones.
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| 1CY Blackcap, male |
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| 5CY Blackcap, male. |
Notice the juvenile, dark brown, crown feathers admixed with the black ones, acquired during the post-juvenile moult, in the young (1CY) male Blackcap above. The lower Blackcap is in its 5th year. It has a much broader, big alula feather than the young bird. The bird itself has an olive-grey mantle compared to the olive-brown of the young bird. Overall, it's a "neater" bird.
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| Adult Grey Wagtail, showing the broad primary coverts |
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| Under-tail of adult male Grey Wagtail |
This Grey Wagtail can be seen most days either on the rocks down at the stream or flitting around the rooftops of the nearby houses, the coach garage, Travis Perkins' outlet or the railway station buildings. It was a complete turn-up to catch it in a net in our orchard instead of a net across the stream.
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| The downside of being a ringer - Blue Tits! |
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| 1CY Siskin, showing the 3 white-edged, unmoulted, greater coverts |
Below is a shot of an unusual Greenfinch. It has 5 primary coverts with grey tips, indicative of an adult male. Further inspection shows that the outer 5 primaries (the outermost is tiny) are somewhat different from the inner five. The yellow of the outer edge is brighter on the "adult" feathers. This bird had done more than the usual post-juvenile moult; a few youngsters do moult out primaries 6 and 7 and rarely 8. I have never seen primaries 6 to 10 moulted in sub-adult Greenfinches before.
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| 1CY greenfinch with primaries 6-10 replaced |
I now know that the local population of Dunnocks equals or exceeds 14 birds at the moment. One bird, a juvenile, had "emigrated" from neighbouring ringer John's place about 2 km away. They have all put on weight lately, some 3 grams heavier than during days with longer daylight. One adolescent bird has acquired these rather unsightly growths on its feet but it doesn't seem to affect it at the moment.
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| Cysts on the feet of a juvenile Dunnock |
We now come to the "results page". Two new species for the year were caught and ringed in the last week. The cummulative totals, excluding multiple re-traps, are as follows:
Sparrowhawk - 1; young male.
Collared Dove - 1; this year's, male on size.
Jackdaw - 1; this year's, female on size. A new species for 2014.
Goldcrest - 4 (2); five were males.
Blue Tit - 14 (7); six were adults, three of which were new.
Great Tit - 2 (7); two were adults and one of those was a new male.
Coal Tit - 1 (1); both 1CY birds.
Long-tailed Tit - (6)
Chiffchaff - 1; 3rd week of November. None since.
Blackcap - 11 (1); one adult, plus a "control" not seen since February 2011.
Wren - (3); one adult female, ringed two years ago.
Starling - 1; adult male. A new species for 2014.
Dipper - 1; a full adult.
Blackbird - 5 (4); just one "near continental" type.
Redwing - nil;
Robin - (5); all 1CY, except a female ringed as a juvenile in July 2011.
Dunnock - 4 (10); oldest bird was a female from January 2012.
House Sparrow - 5 (11); just five females.
Grey Wagtail - 1; an unexpected adult male found in the bottom shelf.
Chaffinch - 5;
Greenfinch - 14 (1); 9 male / 6 female. Five adults,
Goldfinch - 91 (44); incl. one 'control', ringed by a neighbouring ringer.
There were 2 adults from 2010/11 winter, 1 from 2011/12, 4 from
2012/13 and 6 from last winter.
Siskin - 2; both in the last week of November, none seen/heard since.
With the Christmas holidays now upon us, I should be able to make the most of two potential trainees and get in a few sessions down at the meadows, by way of a change.
There's always the chance of another new species for the year still. Just look what turned up in neighbouring ringer's garden on the 4th December!
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Dartford Warbler trapped by John Webber (C)
An addition to his garden list! |
The nearest site to see them used to be over 10 miles to the west. What next?
