Under Rydon Hill: Going slow but steady

Sunday, May 17, 2015

Going slow but steady

Another fortnight has passed and the General Election is well out of the way. The birds took no notice of politics and carried on feeding and breeding. We have had some of our greatest numbers on the BTO Garden Birdwatch weekly counts, which is no surprise as the birdfood stocks have been going down at a record rate.

Two bits of news of birds caught here came through. The first was for a 2CY male Greenfinch that was ringed on Exmoor some 28 km south-west of here on "Bonfire Night" and controlled here 152 days later. The other of a Sparrowhawk caught by neighbouring veteran ringer, John, at the other end of the village in December 2009 as a young bird. I also caught a female Siskin with an 'unrecognised' ring sequence (D039) - we'll have to wait and see where that hailed from.

The iridescence of the Starling's plumage

We are hoping to ring some tit pulli in nest boxes this coming week. I get the impression that many species have laid slightly later this year, perhaps because of the cold spell and the general lack of normal amounts of rainfall, both contributing to later insect abundance. But I don't see much evidence so far that there are loads of insects about.

The other task for the week ahead is the recce of 3 rural squares for the House Martin survey. See http://www.bto.org/volunteer-surveys/house-martin-survey for more information. They were one of my first study species after I had returned to bird ringing. We picked up the start of the decline back in the 'eighties on the 'seventies estate we were surveying.

Recently fledged Long-tailed Tit

Fledgling Robin

Fledgling Dunnock

A second Sedge Warbler

Lesser Whitethroat
The species is not now recorded any further west in Somerset

81 new birds ringed and another 46 individual birds that were ringed before this period:-

Sparrowhawk - 1 control; ringed as a young male 5 years 5 months ago

Woodpigeon - 2; both on the same day - heavy brutes, 530-555 gm

Collared Dove - 1; a this years bird

Gt. Spotted Woodpecker - (1); this morning - the 2CY female from 13th April, the brood patch now indicative of her feeding young in a nest nearby

Jackdaw - 1; an adult female with vascularised brood patch (B3) on the 8th, other Jackdaws are still "playing with sticks" (nest building) so haven't laid yet

Goldcrest - 1; a bright 2CY male

Blue Tit - 1 (4); oldest was ringed May 2012 as an adult male - makes it 5 years old or more

Great Tit - (5); 2 breeding females, oldest male ringed as adult in Mar. 2011 (= at least 6 years old)

Long-tailed Tit - 6 (4); 6 were juvs, plus a new female

Blackcap - 3 (1); males on territory plus an incoming female

Les. Whitethroat - 1; in our orchard

Sedge Warbler - 1; in our orchard

Starling - 10 (3); all adults, 7 new males

Dipper - (1); male from 3 weeks ago

Blackbird - 6 (8); 4 new males in the garden, 2 juv males on 11th

Robin - 10 (3); 9 new juvs and a 2CY male

Dunnock - 4 (1); all juvs, except for the breeding female that was already ringed