Thrush Madness

Adult male Ring Ouzel

What a day at Waxham, and by the sounds of it the whole of Norfolk was the same, one of the biggest falls of thrushes seen for many years. We spent the whole day and finished with an impressive total. Early on we were gutted when a Ring Ouzel got out of the net before we got to it, however we finished the day with a total catch of 5 (we saw probably 20-30 during the day).

First-winter Male

Approx (quick skim through data) totals trapped and ringed today 06:00 - 18:00 

Robin 67

Goldcrest 43

Redwing 35

Blackbird 15

First-winter female

Meadow Pipit 12

Song Thrush 9

Chiffchaff 6 (4 Abietinus)

Ring Ouzel 5

Blackcap 3

Reed Bunting 1

Plus a few LT, Blue and Great tits

Total: c.220 birds

Waxham ringing

A great day on the coast found us pulling two special birds out of the nets at Waxham - a beautiful male firecrest and a Yellow-browed Warbler. Both of which we hadn't seen or heard before we found them in the net. A nice supporting cast of Goldcrests, Redpolls and Meadow pipits kept things ticking over before the rain set in and we packed up.

'Northern' Blackbird

Wild About Norfolk

UEARG were recently invited to do a ringing demonstration at the Wild About Norfolk event (www.wildaboutnorfolk.co.uk/) at Easton College. It was a great success catching 127 birds and showing many kids and  parents birds up close for the first time. Hopefully inspiring a new generation of nature lovers while telling them about birds and ringing.

Totals:

Blue tit 39

Great tit 31

Goldfinch 19

Chaffinch 10

Robin 4

Blackbird 3

Goldcrest 4

Wren 3

Coal tit 1

Dunnock 5

Treecreeper 2

Long-tailed tit 6

Badger Cull Petition

Excuse this non-ringing post but please sign the petition.

Ask anyone with a bit of science in their background and they will tell you that a badger cull will not work in the long term. There is currently a badger tb vaccine and there is a cattle vaccine which is only waiting to be legalised. So where is the justification in this cull which is only going ahead due to farmers pressure.

30 seconds to save 100,000 lives. Please sign petition at http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/38257 

Cantley Marsh and Broads Swallow Roost

A busy day on the 7th found us at Cantley catching Acros again at dawn and in the broads catching swallows at dusk. A fairly successful day ringing a total of 162 birds.

Morning Session 06:00-13:00

Swallow Roost

Cantley Sessions

A couple of sessions at Cantley Marshes recently. A couple of weeks ago the group made a catch but dont have the totals to hand. Yesterday we attempted to make a wader catch but they weren't playing ball, neither were the swallows which didn't come into roost. A below average catch of Acros and a few Bearded tits kept us ticking along but yet again a real lack of juveniles is apparent.

Totals from 4th/5th August

Special Alice

Big Campus Summer Ring (24th/25th July)

Here are the totals from the Big Campus Ring (re-traps in brackets).

This session involved closing off the path between the UEA broad and the river. Numbers were well down on previous years. We ringed 81 new birds, with 21 re-traps. Not too many, but everybody got to do a decent few birds. 23 species isn't a bad tally, either.

2 kingfishers, 2 jays, and a magpie were the highlights. Also nice to see a couple of great tits with B rings on them, courtesy of the group's nest box ringing team.

All 5 Acros we ringed were adults -  typical of this years "breeding" season, if you can call it that!

Woodpigeon    2 

Kingfisher    2 

Wren    13 (1)

Dunnock    1 (3)

Robin    7 (2)

Blackbird    5 (4)

Song Thrush    3 

Cetti's Warbler    1 

Sedge Warbler    4 

Reed Warbler    1 

Whitethroat    2 

Blackcap    9 (2)

Chiffchaff    4 

Willow Warbler    3 

Long-tailed Tit    7 (3)

Marsh Tit    1 

Blue Tit    9 (2)

Great Tit    0 (2)

Treecreeper    1 

Jay    1 (1)

Magpie    2 

Greenfinch    2 (1)

Goldfinch    1 

    

Total:    81 (21)