Not summer, anyway.

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.

1CY Blackcap, male

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.

Adult Grey Wagtail, showing the broad primary coverts

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.

The downside of being a ringer - Blue Tits!

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.

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.

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!

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?

New life and better weather

The garden could do with some rain after this run of fine, warm weather that we have enjoyed. This welcome state of affairs is not always conducive to our ringing efforts though, as it has served up two of the three detrimental elements, namely full sun and stiff breezes (the third being moderate to heavy rain).

It has been 17 days since I reported in last and during that time many more young birds have fledged and are busy finding their way in life without their parents being there all the time. The grown-ups have also started re-nesting and at least one Robin and one Blackbird pair are on eggs once more. The gaping of more tiny mouths is expected shortly.

Some new species for the year have been ringed and some "old friends" have been tempted into the nets and an old trap that I dug out.

Male Pied Wagtail first ringed as a juvenile on 12-12-2012

Juvenile female Greenfinch, one of two ringed

Fledgling Dunnock, one of four trapped

2CY female Common Redstart, a locally common breeder 

John and I usually manage to catch around four Redstarts between us in our gardens each spring. The dates can be as early as mid April or as late as June.

The results of two weeks limited ringing in the garden.

Rook 1 - female didn't quite make it safely off the bird table

Blue Tit (3) - a young female and 2 older males, one born 2010, the other is that or older

Great Tit 7 (1) - a new pair and 5 offspring, the other a brooding female

Chifchaff 1 - a new 2CY male (that was singing against the 'resident' male)

Blackbird 5 (5) - 4 youngsters and a new, mature male; 2 mature males, a female and a "new" 2CY pair were recaptured. We know we have 3 pairs nesting.

Robin 3 (5) - 3 new and 4 re-trapped juveniles and a "dad".

Redstart 1 - 2CY female (above)

Dunnock 4 (3) - 4 new fledglings plus 2 males and a female

House Sparrow 3 (3) - 2 barely fledged and a new male plus 3 females coming to millet to feed their young in nests in the nearby industrial estate buildings

Pied Wagtail (2) - a probable pair that feed on the lawns. Up to 6 birds present, 1 unringed female.

Chaffinch 1 (1) - first 3J (juvenile) of the season and a 2012 male

Greenfinch 6 - 2 juvs, 3 males and a 2CY female in egg 

Goldfinch (3) - all old males from 2011 and 2012

Siskin 6 (1) - 4 females and 3 males, all nesting locally

Bullfinch 2 (1) - a new pair and a re-trap male, all 2CY

15 species, 40 new, 28 re-traps.    [2CY = in second calendar year, i.e. "maiden"]

Still having a mix of bad days and good days; shingles starting to ameliorate at last.

A disaster befell us, too. We noticed that there weren't any tadpoles in the pond. There had been a thousand or more wee ones previously. The pond was a very dark green with lesser duckweed on the surface - but no taddies. Either there was no food or insufficient oxygen or the one night of frost might have done the damage. You know who got in and drained it, scrubbed it and re-filled it with rainwater from one of the butts.

The empty and clean pond

Bye for now!