First Blabi Pulli & Lotti control DAC372

Iain spent his lunch yesterday looking for nests, he found several Lotti nests, a Greenfinch nest and a couple of Blackbird nests. Surprisingly one of these contained 3 well grown chicks, old enough to ring. He gave me a text (as I'm working towards an open nest pullus endorsement) and I went in to Uni to ring them.

Earlier in the morning we had attempted a session at a new farm site we've been feeding up for a couple of weeks. It turned out to be a bit of a failure catching just 7 resident birds, so we took down the feeders and will use the site next winter.

Farm Totals

Dunnock 1

Blue Tit 2 (M&F)

Great Tit 2 (M&F)

Chaffinch 2 (M&F)

Finally, some recent campus sessions 

17/3/11 Greenhouse:

Great Tit 1(3)

Siskin 4(2)

Robin 1(1)

Blackcap 1

Blue Tit 1(4)

Blackbird 1

Chaffinch 1(1)

1 RECOVERED Blue Tit - ringed UEA, 5M FROM 2010 - dead beneath a window at UEA.

25/3/11 Greenhouse: 

Wren 1

Great Tit 1(15)

Siskin 3

Robin (3)

Brambling 6

Blue tit  (5)

Dunnock 1(3)

Chaffinch 3

Song Thrush 1

Blackbird 1

Wood Pigeon 1

22/3/11 Sainsbury's Centre  

Long-tailed Tit (5) 1 CONTROL DAC372

Great Tit 7(7)

Chaffinch 3

Blue Tit 3(6)

Dunnock (1)

Reed Bunting 1

Great Spotted Woodpecker (1)

Robin 1

First Waxham visit of the year 24/03/11

First Chiffchaff of the year

Due to the fine weather we thought we'd try Waxham for the first time this year, with early migrants, wheatears etc. in mind. It turns out they definitely weren't in yet and finished the morning with just 6 birds (3 new, 3 retraps). Can't complain really though with beautiful weather, Cranes calling all morning, a fly through Hen Harrier, a smart Grass Snake and our first chiffy of the year. Due to lack of birds and a certain Certhia causing a certain member of the group to lose concentration, we packed up early and went down to Landguard where we were fortunate to get in the hand views.

Robin 1 (1)
Chiffchaff 1
Great Tit 1
Long-tailed Tit (1)
Wren (1)

Forgot to mention, had an Otter on the UEA broad while ringing the other day, very cool!

Recent recoveries and Campus ringing

Another bunch of recoveries have come in from the BTO, the new email system is definitely proving to be a great improvement from the old postal system.

Our Long-tailed Tit (CPK176) has been caught again in Alderton, Suffolk. intially ringed at UEA on 22/09/2009, retrapped in Alderton on 11/04/2010 - 201days, retrapped again in Alderton on 04/01/2011 - 469 days, 69km.

Another Long-tailed Tit, ringed on campus on 20/05/2010, found dead after heavy rain at Ripley Close, Norwich on 08/09/2010. 111days, 3km.

Sedge Warbler: born at Bure Marshes, our Constant Effort Scheme (CES) site and ringed on 31/07/2010, retrapped at Belton Marshes on 27/08/2011. 27days, 19km.

and finally a couple from Iain's house:

Brambling: a first year female ringed in Winfarthing, Norfolk on 28/12/2010. Retrapped by Iain in East Harling on 06/02/2011. 40 days, 18km.

Chaffinch: an adult female ringed on 05/02/2011. Found dead by neighbour on 17/02/2011. 12days, 0km.

Ringing Totals from last weeks campus session

Blue Tit 3 (10)
Chaffinch 2 (1)

Siskin  5 (2)

Dunnock 0 (2)

Great Tit 1 (3)

Robin 1 (1)

Blackcap 1

Blackbird 1

Siskins find the feeders (at last!)

Despite good numbers of siskins present on Campus all winter they have refused to come to food - until now... In the last couple of days they have been seen at the feeders and today we finally caught some. No sign of yesterdays waxwings though :(

 

Totals (retraps)

Great Spotted Woodpecker (1)
Woodpigeon 1
Blackbird 1
Blue Tit 2 (7)
Great Tit 2 (1)
Coal Tit (1)
Long-tailed Tit 1 (1)
Greenfinch 4
Chaffinch 2
Siskin 5
Reed Bunting 1

30 birds.

Last week catch-up and yet more Waxwi's

A morning session at the greenhouses feeding station on UEA produced another control this week, a Male chaffinch (V917944). Otherwise a fairly standard morning with 48 birds.

6M Chaffinch - control V917944

Totals (retraps)

Dunnock 1
Blackbird 5 (1)
Great Tit 3 (7)
Blue Tit 4 (13)
Chaffinch 2 + 1 control
Greenfinch 4 + 1 from Rob Robinson (2.5miles)
Goldfinch 3

With the generous permission of the John Innes Centre we were able to attempt to catch the waxwings in their carpark. 15 were present when we arrived but before we'd even got out of the car they'd b*ggered off (I think they recognise my car...). After an hour 7 came back but decided to change their flightpath so our net was in the wrong place. So we put up another net and caught 2. A lot of effort for two waxwings...

Anyway the good news is that those berries are now exhausted and they've made the short hop to UEA Campus (hoorah) where the group were successful in catching a further 11 birds yesterday (although i'm informed that about 30 bounced...)

Waxwings, Wagtails and more recent recoveries

Another attempt at the pied wagtail roost on Sunday night was a bit disappointing when, after setting up, they chose to roost in a different place. We still managed to catch 16 birds, moving a net and catching a few around the normal net. Interestingly after a slightly female biased catch last time (15 females - 11 males), this time we had a male-biased catch (14 males - 2 females).

  
With growing numbers of waxwings and dwindling berry crops, waxwing catching looked like it was going to be easy yesterday, especially after we caught 5 before we'd even tied up the net... unfortunately the whole flock then left while we were processing and didn't come back, can't complain at five more though!











Finally a few recent recoveries have just come through:

Blackbird - one ringed as a nestling at UEA on 08/06/2009, killed by a car at Branch End, Stocksfield, Northumberland on 20/05/2010. 329km - 347days

Long-tailed Tit (female) - one ringed at UEA on 22/09/2009, retrapped by a ringer in Alderton, Suffolk on 11/04/2010. 69km - 201days

Sparrowhawk (First-year male) - one ringed by UEARG at Whitlingham Marsh Sewage Works on 31/08/2009, found dead at Thorpe St. Andrew on 15/04/2010. 3km - 228days

View Untitled in a larger map

Waxham Recoveries (Foreign & Owl Pellet!)

Belgian-ringed Chiffchaff AN9732, Waxham.

Another bunch of recoveries just received from the BTO, including some of our foreign controls, hooray!...

Goldcrest - Ringed "AT SEA" off of Agerso Island, Skaelskor, Denmark on 01/10/2010. Recaught by UEARG at Waxham on 10/10/2010. 682km - 9days.

Chiffchaff - Ringed at Sint Amands, Antwerpen, Belgium on 7/10/2008. Recaught by UEARG at Waxham on 27/09/2010. 259km - 720 days.

Wren - Ringed at Waxham on 01/09/2010, Ring found near Waxham in owl pellet on 15/01/2011! 3km - 136days.

Goldcrest - Ringed at Waxham on 10/10/2010. Taken by cat at Hintlesham, Suffolk on 19/01/2011. 88km -  101days.

Campus Ringing & Habitat Management

Yesterday morning at the "greenhouse" feeding station resulted in 47 birds, 33 new (13 retrap) + 1 control (anyone recognise L732088 ?). A few of us spent the evening at the Norfolk Ringers meeting, an evening well spent with details of ringing totals throughout Norfolk and some really interesting short talks.


Spent most of the day in glorious spring sunshine at our Whitlingham ringing site, pollarding trees and cutting back vegetation to reduce the height and create the dense lower story thicket. Couldn't have been better weather and some really good work done in just a day.


Totals from yesterday


Blue Tit 7 (7)
Blackbird 3
Robin 1 (1) Retrap 2009
Dunnock 2 (1)
Goldfinch 6 (1) + 1 control L732088. Retrap 2008
Greenfinch 6
Great Tit 5 (3) 1 retrap from Tony, 1 from 2009
Chaffinch 2
Brambling 1

Pied Wagtail Catch (First PIEWAs for UEARG)

After discovering where the wagtails went to roost last night, we attempted to catch them as they left the roost this morning, but they left before we were prepared and we only caught 3. However we returned this evening and were more successful, catching 23 and a sparrowhawk.

PIEWA details:

Adult male - 5
Immature male - 6
Adult female - 3
Immature female - 12

It would have been a much larger catch if it weren't for the wind causing many to bounce and escape the net, oh and the sparrowhawk which flushed everything...

Campus session and Pied Wagtail observation

5M Brambling

We started the day with a small session on the university campus 34 (18 retraps) then spent the evening watching a 200+ wagtail roost in preparation for a roost catch.

Totals for the morning:

Dunnock 3
Long-tailed Tit 2 (4)
Coal Tit 2
Blue Tit 3 (4)
Great Tit 2 (9)
Chaffinch 3
Brambling 1
Greenfinch (1) Ringed as a nestling on 12/06/08 (2yrs 261days)