Jan Ringing - Swanwick & Beechcroft

Last week was one of the more busier weeks ringing wise for a little while. In total we managed to squeeze in three sessions across the week, and although the species were not all that rare or spectacular it was great to get lots of ringing practice, learning lots along the way. 

Dunnock at Swanwick

On Wednesday lunchtime we raced down to Swanwick lakes. We first thought we'd just recce the site for a bird ringing event in April, but after seeing a few birds using the feeders we threw up a net. After 5mins we had caught 15 birds - more than enough for a quick session so we got the net down sharpish. We caught Blue tit (11), Great tit (3) and a Dunnock. The most exciting thing was one of the Blue tits was a retrap, first ringed as a chick in back in May.

Nuthatch - Female (left) Male (Right)

Friday we swapped sandwich eating for a quick lunchtime ringing session in the office garden. We caught a good selection of birds; Great tit (1), retrap Firecrest (1) and Nuthatch (2). As you can see we caught the two Nuthatch at the same time which gave us a chance to compare males and females. The males clearly have much darker brown underparts in the lower tail coverts and flanks.

Great tit - Female (Left) Male (Right)

Saturday we started early and put a net up around the feeders at Swanwick Lakes in the same place as Wednesday, but with more time we had the net open for a couple of hours and caught 65 birds; Blue tit (39), Great tit (17), Robin (3), Nuthatch (3) and Coal tit (1). It was a great session for getting plenty of extraction practice and comparing sexes and ages of Great & Blue tits. Also it was the first time I've ever ringed a Coal tit.

Great tit - Adult (left) Juv (right). Line indicates moult break with dull juv feathers to right of line. 

Coal tit