2011 - lots of controls so far

So far in 2011 NLRG has caught 24 controls. (a control is generally a ringed bird that has moved more than 5km). This is unusually high for so early the in year. These 24 are made up of:

Grey Wagtail - 1 (sight record in Cumbria)
Coal Tit - 1
Blue Tit - 1
Greenfinch - 1
Goldfinch - 2
Siskin - 4
Common Redpoll - 1
Lesser Redpoll - 14

In previous years by this time we have had rather fewer:
2010 - 2 (Great Tit and Blackbird)
2009 - 4 (Chaffinch, Twite, Blue Tit, Siskin)
2008 - 4 (Great Tit, Blackbird, Blue Tit and Oystercatcher)
2007 - 4 (3x Blue Tit, Blackbird)
2006 - 0
2005 - 3 (2x Great Tit, Chaffinch)
2004 - 2 (Tree Sparrow, Chaffinch)
2003 - 3 (Greenfinch, Great Tit, Blackbird)
2002 - 2 (Long Tailed Tit, Greenfinch)
2001 - 0

I've excluded Wader and Gull sight records as they are largely down to effort rather than a true reflection of how many ringed birds are about.

If we excluded the small finches (Goldfinch, Siskin and Redpoll) we would be at about normal levels. Judging by other ringing group blogs I'm fairly certain we're not the only group catching many more control finches than normal this winter. I look forward to hearing about where all these birds are from.

Richard

Mealy Redpoll in the garden

Is this on your wish list? Well this must be the best winter if you have ever wanted to attract one of these chaps to your garden and it’s not too late! In our upland Bowland garden we have had a good passage of finches through March as they start heading north for breeding. The vast majority have been Siskins but we have also had a few Lesser Redpolls and now two Mealy (Common) Redpolls!


The latest bird was spotted by my mother (as was the first!) late on 30th March when she noticed it was ringed! Thankfully the bird was still present the following day visiting the feeders frequently throughout the day. I positioned myself in the kitchen with my telescope and amazingly it didn’t take long until I had read all the number (L704752). Mealy Redpolls are much easier to read rings on than Lesser Redpolls as they seem to have longer legs and don’t cover their rings with feathers!


This individual was originally ringed on 12th March at Gamlingay, Cambridgeshire some 250km to the Southeast.

Mark Breaks

Feeders in conifer plantations

We have been rather puzzled by the erratic nature of the finches in Thrushgill spruce/larch plantation with respect to targeting the nyger and sunflower hearts. I think we have solved the problem! The trouble is that perfect ringing conditions of warmth, stillness plus a bit of sun have prompted the opening up of the larch and spruce cones and hordes of noisy redpolls, siskins and bramblings have been gorging themselves on the accessible food. No amount of seductive taping would bring the birds down to the feeders, they were not interested However, as soon as some wet cloudy weather appeared, down the birds descended on to the feeders. This has been an 'all or nothing' process as presumably has been the situation between either closed or open cones, with no 'half-open' ones to retain a proportion of birds in the treetops Therefore, after a full dry & warm week with the nyger seed untouched, a visit yesterday afternoon, following 24 hours of unsettled weather, saw the nyger seed almost all eaten (48 hours since previous check). Then the following 23 hours saw ALL yesterdays 4 x nyger feeder top-up eaten by 1500hrs this afternoon! Trouble is that you cannot catch birds in a F6-7 wind! Hopefully there will be a small weather window whilst the birds are still around. Pete Marsh

Very Red Crossbill

John and Richard 'borrowed' my ringing site at Thrushgill this morning and they came up with this beastie, probably a 2CY

Pete Marsh

Meadow Pipit

Following discussion last year on ageing spring Meadow Pipit (& pics), 5 out of 6 ringed this morning were clearly 2CY on the basis of retained juvenile greater coverts. The other was an adult (all coverts, tail shape etc), but cautiously left as a '4' The 8 caught this morning exhibited a wide variety of spring plumage options 1) 2 x all feathers fresh adult-type, including all coverts and perceived adult-type tail 2) one with e.g. a mixture of old adult-type and new (adult-type) median coverts and perceived adult-type tail 3) one with e.g. a full set of 2CY median coverts and 1CY/2CY tail 4) 4 with a mixture of old 2CY and new adult-type median coverts and 1CY/2CY tail Obviously 3) & 4) are '5's. However, can 2) be definitely assigned as a '6'? Especially as the older feathers look too worn to be a result of a two-stage replacement of juvenile median coverts during late autumn/winter. Am I too cautious ageing 1) & 2) as 'probable adult' but safer to call '4's?

Redpolls and Siskins on the Move

Following on from the recent posts about Redpolls I thought it was time for an over=view of the group's activities with these species so far this year. We have been catching at four feeding stations, ringing over 250 Siskin and ca 200 Redpoll since January. To date we have caught eight Redpoll and four Siskin that have been ringed elsewhere.

Pride of place goes to the Stavanger (Norway)ringed Redpoll caught at Thrushgill. But the local movements recorded suggest quite a mobile population with four Lesser Redpolls moving between our feeding stations. Of these two moved 34 kms, one within just three days,

We await with interest receiving the ringing details of the other birds. That is four each of Redpoll and Siskin along with two Goldfinch caught at the same time.

John

Ring more Great Tits!

A Great Tit ringed in Winder Wood, Roeburndale as a pulli last year was retrapped near Wray (also Roeburndale) at the weekend.

It might not sound too earth-shattering a question, but where do the Great Tits all go in winter? Winter observations suggest the aren't present in the upland woods, but they aren't retrapped elsewhere in the same way as Blue Tits (which can show surprising movements from the Lune Valley woods to lowland urban areas.)

So if they don't move, and if they don't stay in the upland woods ....... what do they do?

perhaps its time to question the old assumptions ... or to return to the hibernation hypothesis!

maybe we might learn something by ringing all the pulli we can find!

paul