A Bearded Tit Weekend

A great weekend for the 24th year of our Bearded Tit study at Leighton Moss RSPB Reserve. With excellent ringing weather on Sunday and much activity on the grit trays. In total we recorded 43 birds. This included 21 mist netted including six not ringed before and 22 on the grit trays. All the grit tray sightings were of colour ringed birds, not an unringed bird in sight! So far for our RAS study we have caught or sighted 30 adults- 16 males and 14 females. Two were first ringed as juveniles in 2013, 13 in 2014 and 15 in 2015. We usually pick up more adults over the next 10 weeks or so of the gritting season. I estimate that the breeding population this year is ca. 25 pairs.

Most of the birds visiting the grit trays at the start of the season are adults. This was true of a party of five today.A male and a female gritted together and were obviously a pair. They gritted together in early October 2015. If they both survive Bearded Tits seem to pair as juveniles and remain together for life. We keep detailed records of all sightings. Many birds are recorded gritting on only one day but some occur on up to 17 days. Often birds grit early in the season then have a break and return later.

John