Date: 28th
April, 2019
Nets: 130m
Sound: None
Weather: 7C rising to
9C
Ringers: CS and EB
The dawn chorus was
splendid with all resident birds in full voice and the visiting Blackcaps seem
to have completed their rehearsals and remembered their lost chords, their
melodious song is most enjoyable. This
was all quite encouraging to a damp, chilly start with the temperature
initially dropping. Our catch was numerically in line with expectations as was
the species variety, almost.
Species
|
Ringed
|
Re-trapped
|
Total
|
Blackcap
|
3
|
2
|
5
|
Blue
Tit
|
|
2
|
2
|
Bullfinch
|
2
|
|
2
|
Chaffinch
|
|
2
|
2
|
Coal
Tit
|
|
2
|
2
|
Dunnock
|
|
2
|
2
|
G
S Woodpecker
|
1
|
2
|
3
|
Great
Tit
|
1
|
5
|
6
|
M
S Woodpecker
|
1
|
|
1
|
Nuthatch
|
|
1
|
1
|
Pied
Flycatcher
|
8
|
6
|
14
|
Robin
|
|
1
|
1
|
Song
Thrush
|
|
1
|
1
|
Wren
|
1
|
|
1
|
Total
|
17
|
26
|
43
|
There was a surprise
in the first round: three Great Spotted Woodpeckers in the same net laying
almost within touching distance of each other.
Previously, and rarely, we have had two male Great Spots in a net
simultaneously and had presumed they were enacting a territorial dispute when trapped. Today’s three Great Spots were two females
and a new male – a territorial dispute is not inconceivable with a pair
protesting at the intrusion of another individual. Both females had brood patch scores of three;
and the male’s abdomen and thorax were clear of feathers, an apparent brood
patch too, but not wrinkly; hinting at a paternal brooding role.
Ringing sessions in
late April, early May are always interesting because they are at a cusp in the
avian annual cycle: some birds have started breeding; some have just arrived to
start breeding; and others will be migrating through to breeding grounds
elsewhere. Several of today’s captures
aptly illustrated this mix of breeding behaviour and preparation; even within
the same species, such as the Blackcaps and Chaffinches.
One of the re-trapped Blackcaps,
a known breeding female from last year, today had the beginnings of a brood
patch. In contrast, a new ringed Blackcap
had a fat score of four and weighed 21.1g – a bird still on migration. Both re-trapped Chaffinches were females. One female was initially ringed in spring
2016 and has been caught each spring since; today she had a nice wrinkly-red
brood patch – so presumably is breeding here, or hereabouts. The other female Chaffinch had been caught a
couple of times through the winter but today her weight was significantly
greater at 24.2g with a matching fat load clearly she will be heading for a
breeding site elsewhere.
Catching and ringing
eight new Pied Flycatchers is always a pleasure and a privilege; each year we
are stunned by these essentially brown and white beauties with such slender
black legs. We do not capture many of the stereotypical black and white
variety. In sexing the males we look for
two white spots on the forehead (which are often buff) and black upper tail
coverts. The six re-traps were all from
previous years – this is somewhat gratifying in that we have numerous nest
boxes through the wood for them and other species too. One of these re-traps was a nestling from
last year. Unfortunately, somewhat
perplexing and slightly worrying (though it is early days yet) all the re-traps
were from last year only! In previous
years we have captured older birds in early April (from various years) with
younger birds figuring in the late April and early May catches with females
also arriving later. That pattern has not been repeated this year. Both sexes arrived simultaneously and two
pairs (at least) have already completed nests – markedly earlier than
previously.
The penultimate round
produced a stunner!
Approaching a net we
thought a fourth Great-spotted Woodpecker for the day had been trapped. How pleasingly wrong that thought was – it
was quickly apparent that it was a Middle-spotted Woodpecker. And, O Happy Day, it was a female!
A few weeks back we
had caught a male Middle-spotted Woodpecker whose capture had indicated a range
extension for the species in this part of Germany. Well, here was a splendid female with a
wonderful red, vein engorged, brood patch.
Exciting, hopefully their breeding effort will be successful. We have seen a male, presumable the same male
we caught, on several occasions; though his legs, and hence the ring, have been
hidden from view.
The female
Middle-spotted Woodpecker was a fitting closure to a very interesting and happy
week’s ringing. Throughout the county we
monitor twenty-six Tawny Owl boxes; it was more but during the winter several
were lost in storms, forestry clear-cutting and, we think, a theft. On Wednesday and Thursday, slightly earlier
than planned, due to an unfavourable weather forecast, we visited seventeen of
the boxes; we’d hoped to have visited them all but joyfully many boxes were occupied,
several with broods of five and six owlets.
These good numbers had been semi-expected because we have noted an
abundance of mice and voles this year.
Our total numbers were much better than in any previous year and
hopefully give the local population a boost after several poor reproductive
years. Such numbers of fluffy, beauts took longer than anticipated to process;
and why rush such moments of beauty!
