Wednesday 31 July 2019

Group update, and a bumper Spring/Summer of garden ringing


It’s been a reasonably quiet spring/summer for UEARG so there isn’t much to update on. Nest boxes on campus were checked earlier in the season and produced plenty of broods of Blue and Great Tits, a reasonable year productivity wise it seemed. Other than that, members of the group have joined other local ringers or groups assisting with their CES (constant effort site) activities, and other bits and pieces such as swifts, raptor pulli, and spotted flycatcher pulli. We’ve also had group members going further afield with their ringing, visiting Bird Observatories such as Fair Isle and Calf of Man, and even as far as Iceland. Things should hopefully start to pick up now though as the summer progresses and Autumn comes ever closer. This morning six of us gathered for a big net-ride clearing and preparation session at one of our best sites in the Yare Valley, and should allow us to get back on site to monitor how the birds are doing.

For this blog I thought I’d briefly touch upon a surprising addition to group ringing totals this year, mine and Kirsty’s garden. If you’re a ringer or have spoken to a ringer about how many different individual birds are coming to your feeder, I’m sure you know it’s way more individuals than you would think. Even so, we’ve been pleasantly surprised by just how many are using our relatively modest sized garden (10x20m ish). We are lucky enough to have a garden that backs onto a small woodland, so I’ll preface the numbers with that, but we’ve had 358 different individuals across 18 species. Those totals cover just 4 months of ringing in our garden since we moved in, and with new individuals caught each session it’s set to rise further. Typical catches are dominated by a handful of species (e.g. Blue Tit, Great Tit, Dunnock, Robin), and we have been inundated with juveniles. Perhaps another sign that the tits have had a productive breeding season.  The biggest surprise for us however, has been the number of different Jays that visit the garden. Today we caught number 12! Other highlights have included confirmed breeding of species such as Bullfinch, Chiffchaff, and Greenfinch in the area. The woodland is relatively young growth and has has had extensive management in the past, so natural nest cavities are in short supply. This may help explain the lack of some typical woodland species such as nuthatches or treecreepers.

Table 1. Garden ringing totals 31/3/2019-31/7/2019. Brackets show number of juveniles, which have dominated our catch.

Row Labels
New
Retrap
Total
Blackbird
19(8)
8(1)
27
Blackcap
2
0
2
Blue Tit
104(85)
23(21)
127
Bullfinch
3(1)
0
3
Chaffinch
23(19)
1(1)
24
Chiffchaff
6(4)
1(0)
7
Collared Dove
2(1)
0
2
Dunnock
25(18)
11(4)
36
Goldfinch
8(2)
0
8
Great Tit
107(67)
85(71)
192
Greenfinch
8(2)
0
8
Jay
12(3)
3
15
Long-tailed Tit
1
0
1
Magpie
2(1)
0
2
Robin
23(18)
27(7)
50
Starling
1
0
1
Woodpigeon
9(3)
5(3)
14
Wren
4(3)
0
4
Grand Total
358
164
522



The juvenile Jays have only just started visiting the garden in the last week. Their underparts are still downy and and the bright blue wing covets show less black barring.

Great tits seem to very readily enter the potter traps here, whilst we seem to catch far fewer blue tits in them.

A fresh juvenile Bullfinch, probably left the nest the day we caught it. 

Comparatively more black barring in the wing covets of this adult Jay, and lacks the downy underparts of the juvenile (above).

A staple of garden ringing, a fresh juvenile Blue Tit.

One of our potter trap setups, placed on a bird table I built. The tits seldom enter the traps if they are placed on the ground.

The garden in question (and Sparrow, the dog).


No comments:

Post a Comment