Meisen Wood: various December dates.
Nets: varied between
18m and 39m.
Sound: Crested and
Coal Tit (on two occasions).
Ringers: CS, EB and JL
(visiting from England ).
Species
|
Ringed
|
Re-trapped
|
Total
|
Blackbird
|
5
|
5
|
|
Blue
Tit
|
10
|
21
|
31
|
Chaffinch
|
5
|
1
|
6
|
Coal
Tit
|
1
|
13
|
14
|
Crested
Tit
|
1
|
1
|
|
Dunnock
|
1
|
1
|
|
Great
Tit
|
18
|
26
|
44
|
Greenfinch
|
1
|
1
|
|
Long-tailed
Tit
|
1
|
1
|
|
Marsh
Tit
|
1
|
4
|
5
|
Nuthatch
|
1
|
3
|
4
|
Robin
|
1
|
1
|
2
|
Total
|
44
|
71
|
115
|
The continuous dreick
weather of November, the snow of December combined with family commitments in
northern England and
elsewhere in Germany
have limited the ringing in Meisen Wood for several weeks now. A situation deliciously compounded by
visitors (including a ringer) from England , who like us, enjoyed the
pleasant atmosphere of local Weihnachtsmärkte and the compulsory glugging of
numerous Glühweinen along with other traditional, alcoholically laced
beverages. Between these fine
indulgences a few short ringing sessions were run and the table shows the combined
results.
For JL, who normally
rings few passerines, the sessions were rewarding in several ways. His joyful whoop on a net round in finding a
re-trap Crested Tit was quite delightful.
He then processed the bird which was his first ringing encounter with
this species. He was pleasantly
reacquainted too, on four occasions, with Marsh Tits; a species he believes he
has not handled for eight or nine years.
While his comments on the weights of the Great Tits and Blue Tits are
best summarised by the English idiom: little fat ________!
Throughout the winter
we record fat and muscle scores. We find
that Great Tit, Blue Tit, Greenfinch and Chaffinch pile on the fat with the fat
scores rising during the day thus, late on, they are usually high up the obesity
index. Contrastingly we find Coal and
Marsh Tits have low or even zero fat scores but their weights do increase
during the day. Coal and Marsh Tits
caught late in the day typically being 10% heavier than those caught in the
early net rounds; presumably their energy reserves are being stored elsewhere
in the body e.g., the liver. This winter
fattening/weight gain is a clear physiological adaptation for the birds to
survive the long winter nights and is unrelated to migration.
Our Coal Tit numbers
this year are 135% higher than previous years.
The Coal Tit (in Germany
at least) is considered to be a partial migrant and irruptive consequently this
would appear to be an irruptive year.
One of the re-trap Coal Tits was originally ringed in December 2015 and
aged, then, as a 4. This was the first
time it has been re-caught thus making it at least three years old which is
above the typical two year life expectancy for the species.
Nuthatches, according
to many Belgian and Dutch studies, are strongly territorial and sedentary
species exhibiting nest site and mate fidelity; with a change in mate only
occurring when one of the pair dies.
Coming onto our ringing site are three territories with a fourth
bordering the very south-eastern edge of Meisen Wood. Consequently we catch few new Nuthatches and
thus are wondering which of the six we regularly re-trap has possibly
died? Though given that they too have an
average life expectancy of two years then ringing an occasional new nuthatch
simply reflects the dynamic nature of wildlife.
Looking at Christmas
and New Year family commitments, and the weather forecast this is probably
about it for ringing in Meisen Wood for 2017.
So on that note:
Frohe
Weihnachten und ein gutes neues Jahr euch allen!
(Happy Christmas and New Year to you all).
