Nets: 124m
Sound: None
Weather: 9C to 23C
some cloud with light wind
Ringers: CS and EB
Spring, a most
anticipated season, has raced by and is essentially over. Evidence for this was apparent when we opened
the nets to a much diminished dawn chorus; volume down, duration shortened and reduced
participants in the choral ensemble. The
day’s excellent, well above average, catch presented the explanation:
seventy-two of the birds caught were juveniles.
Many choristers of previous dawns have nearly completed their breeding efforts
so have no need to advertise themselves and proclaim their territories.
|
Species
|
Ringed
|
Re-trapped
|
Total
|
|
Blackbird
|
1
|
1
|
2
|
|
Blackcap
|
2
|
|
2
|
|
Blue
Tit
|
12
|
3
|
15
|
|
Chiffchaff
|
1
|
|
1
|
|
Crested
Tit
|
6
|
2
|
8
|
|
Dunnock
|
1
|
|
1
|
|
G
S Woodpecker
|
7
|
7
|
14
|
|
Great
Tit
|
6
|
20
|
26
|
|
Greenfinch
|
2
|
|
2
|
|
Hawfinch
|
2
|
|
2
|
|
Marsh
Tit
|
5
|
1
|
6
|
|
Nuthatch
|
2
|
|
2
|
|
Pied
Flycatcher
|
1
|
5
|
6
|
|
Robin
|
|
2
|
2
|
|
Song
Thrush
|
1
|
|
1
|
|
Total
|
49
|
41
|
90
|
The numbers are above
average for several reasons. Most of the
captures came from the nets close to a derelict fountain whose shallow basin we
keep topped up with water, a definite attraction in dry woodland; currently the
wood is scented by that delightful fragrance particular to pine in prolonged
dry periods. Also we have kept two small
feeders going. This is a partial response
to a documentary featuring a well known German naturalist who suggested year
round bird feeding as a means, in a minor way, to compensate for the lack of
food in the wider environment, a negative consequence of Germany
Of particular note is
the number of Great Spotted Woodpeckers: the day’s figures included six new
juveniles sporting bright red crown feathers.
So far this month we have ringed eleven juvenile Great Spots; and two
new adults. The day’s re-traps included
three of those new juveniles one of which had started post-juv moult; moult in
these birds is something we are looking forward to monitoring and given the
woodpeckers’ tendency for regular re-trapping will hopefully bring some clarity
(for us) to moult, and subsequent aging, in this species.
It has certainly been
a good year, locally at least, for breeding tits. All the newly ringed Blue Tits were juveniles
– with a wonderful yellow flush through their faces. And the three re-trapped Blue Tit were birds
we had ringed in boxes in the middle of May.
Similarly the new Great Tits were all juveniles and all but two of the
re-traps were birds we’d ringed in the last month at various nest boxes. One of the re-trapped adult Great Tits had
been ringed as a nestling in 2016. This
was not quite the oldest bird of the day, that sobriquet went to a Robin
originally ringed earlier in 2016.
Frequently tits are
caught as part of a Tit flock and we were delighted to find in the day’s fourth
net round a mixed flock of tits that included six Crested Tit and five Marsh
Tits. All the Marsh Tit were juveniles
and included one that had been ringed a few weeks back. Five of the Crested Tits were new juveniles
with an adult male which had been ringed in early 2017. Catching this chirpy crew of Crested Tits was
special as our efforts in providing nest boxes for this species have totally
failed (so far), but it is pleasing to know they are succeeding somewhere out
there in the woods.
Contrary to the
morning’s pattern, the two Hawfinches were adults: a male and a female. The male Hawfinch’s chin feathers were distinctly
marked, like a Spanish marquis’ beard. He
had a cloacal protuberance, just; and she a poorly demarcated brood patch:
breeding or not breeding that is the question?
Not shown in the table
are six more nestling Pied Flycatchers, bringing this year’s total for nestling
to forty-two. With three more boxes with
nestlings to ring later in the week this year’s total will be the largest
number of Pied Flycatcher nestlings we have ringed in Meisen Wood – so far. Surprisingly we have never caught a recently
fledged nestling and in this respect we differ from much of the published
literature. Numerous Pied Flycatcher studies
indicate that fledglings remain in their natal area for up to forty-five
days. The ones we ring seem to fledge
and depart. Though some of those studies
reported catching fledglings at distances between 2 and 10km form the natal
site; um, 10km to us would be a control.
And the Pied Flys do seem to be departing: when opening the nets we are
often accompanied by the warning chip-chip call of adult Pied Flycatchers as we
walk through the wood, there were fewer today.
Mist netting is a
sampling technique and an inherent variable in any such scientific technique is
that some species’ numbers will be skewed, or absent. Today there were three absentees. Firecrests were excitedly twittering for most
of the morning in the boughs above our ringing table, a ringed male with his
fluorescent orange crest most evident, feeding some youngsters (no crests yet).
They numbered ten or eleven birds though these miniscule birds are difficult to
count in the canopy’s thick foliage. During
the extraction of the aforementioned tit flock a group of Long-tailed Tits
deftly avoided the net; this group of some ten individuals included some
juveniles too. Also a small flock of
seven crossbills flew over. These are
sporadic visitors to the wood and occasionally come down to net level to drink
at the fountain on hot days – to dream the dream; and even better would there
be some re-traps from previous visits?
