Meisen Wood: November 4th, 2017, Restaurants Open

Nets: 96m

Sound: Redwing,  Chiff/Goldcrest – winter, Dunnock – winter.

Weather: rain overnight giving early mist that cleared to a bright and sunny day.

Ringers: CS and EB

Species	Ringed	Re-trap	Totals
Blue Tit	15	9	24
Bullfinch	1		1
Chaffinch	3		3
Coal Tit	4	4	8
Dunnock	2	1	3
Firecrest	2		2
Goldcrest	16		16
Great Tit	7	19	26
Greenfinch	1		1
Marsh Tit	3	9	12
Redwing	9		9
Robin	1	1	2
Totals	64	43	107

A glorious autumnal day: warm and bright, the conifers scenting the air and the larch trees are now a resplendent flaming yellow; a good day to be outside.

Food, glorious food, there is nothing quite like it for attracting birds into gardens and ringing sites.  At Meisen Wood we operate three feeders during the winter, two of which were re-installed this week.  And the restaurant menu of sunflower seeds (shelled and unshelled), niger, various grains and mealworms imbedded in a sumptuous fat successfully pulled in the clients: old and new.

An immediate increase in birds on site was noted in the days prior to this weekend’s ringing particularly, unsurprisingly, the number of various tits.  Though in contrast to previous years the feeders were being frequented by more Marsh and Coal Tits, normally these are bullied off by the more aggressive Great and Blue Tits.  Processing twenty of these smaller tits was very pleasing particularly as the majority were juveniles therefore potentially indicating a reasonable breeding season, locally, for these two species.

For a second consecutive week the session’s final figures were 107 birds caught, what are the probabilities of that occurring?  Sixty-five percent of Saturday’s total were tits and 41%   were re-trap tits.  With such figures being consistent throughout the winter this provides interesting data in both the short and long term.

For instance the nine re-trap Marsh Tits have been re-trapped an average of three times each; but such an average does not reveal some of the more interesting details.  Several of this year’s juveniles have been the most frequently caught individuals – have they not learnt the net locations yet?  Three older Marsh Tits initially ringed inearly winter 2015/16 have subsequently only been re-trapped between late October and late Juanuary in both the original and subsequent winters; is this to be repeated this winter?  Thus do these individuals come here for the feeding station then disperse in late January?

We find such date and the potential patterns this data reveals intriguing!

Marsh Tit