More winter ringing and an early start to spring?

Ringing through January and February is often a test of endurance as much as it is excitement. Although we had a taste of unseasonably warm weather this week, many of our sessions over the last two months have been frosty affairs. As is usually the case with winter ringing for UEARG, the bulk of our ringing has taken place on campus and as winter has progressed the proportion of retraps in our sessions has continued to increase. A nice sign that we have achieved good coverage of the resident populations.

The usual bunch have been mostly out at the two sites on campus (the greenhouses and rabbit enclosure), and data collection has progressed well for the two dissertation project students looking at parasite load in finches and tits. Jen even had the fun of showcasing ringing to prospective students during the recent University open days, a great opportunity to share what we do and hopefully inspire some future ringers.

We have also had some of our C and A permit holders ringing in their respective gardens around Norwich and a bit of extra ringing at other sites such as Whitlingham. As a bit of a change from mist netting (our most commonly used catching technique in the group) Kirsty and myself (Stephen) have also done well with potter traps over the last couple of months in our tiny Norwich garden, catching 38 birds in just two traps usually run for an hour or so before work in the mornings. 

As a group we have caught 617 birds across 25 species over the last two months. Tits dominated the totals making up 69.4% of what we caught but highlights included some more notable species like Black-headed Gulls, Collared Doves, Common Snipe, Treecreepers, Collared Doves, and more.

Table 1. Overview of birds caught by UEARG between January 01^st and March 1^st 2019.

Species	New	Recaptures	Grand Total
Black-headed Gull	4	0	4
Blackbird	32	9	41
Blue Tit	86	124	210
Canada Goose	0	1	1
Chaffinch	9	1	10
Coal Tit	3	13	16
Collared Dove	2	0	2
Dunnock	9	17	26
Goldcrest	0	1	1
Goldfinch	9	3	12
Great Spotted Woodpecker	0	3	3
Great Tit	66	103	169
Greenfinch	6	1	7
Greylag Goose	0	1	1
House Sparrow	4	1	5
Lesser Redpoll	6	0	6
Long-tailed Tit	15	18	33
Mute Swan	2	11	13
Robin	19	21	40
Snipe	3	0	3
Song Thrush	1	1	2
Starling	4	0	4
Treecreeper	2	0	2
Woodpigeon	2	0	2
Wren	2	2	4
Grand Total	286	331	617

I have also had some personal success with a couple of nice species. The first is snipe on a local marsh site, where I have caught three. A tricky site to work but hopefully with more experience of the site catching rates will improve next season. The second is black-headed gulls of which I have caught four. I haven’t got out trying for these as much as I had hoped, but I’m hoping to increase effort soon.

Lots to keep us busy over the next couple of months. Nest box season is right around the corner, and summer migrants will be here before we know it. 

One of two Treecreepers caught on campus in the last two months.

A male House sparrow, a species in UEARG that we usually only catch in our gardens as this one was.

This particular Blackbird was a bit of a monster of a specimen with a 145mm wing compared to the BTO average male wing length of 133mm, an indication this individual is likely from the continent.

One of two Collared Doves ringed in the past two months. A species caught less often than you might expect (Only 499 fully grown individuals caught across Britain & Ireland in 2017).

Nice top catch a couple of Woodpigeons, as their large size means they don't often stay in mist nets.

Common Snipe.

 Black-Headed Gull.

Chaffinch

Goldfinch

Long-Tailed Tit

Starling

Late Autumn ringing on campus

This autumn has seen a big up-tick in the amount of ringing happening within UEARG. Partially driven by the extra incentive of having two undergraduate projects in need of active ringing, and partially due to the arrival of two more C permit holders into the group (Stephen (Me) and Kirsty) who have started PhDs at UEA. We now have four active C permit ringers (Jen, Josie, Kirsty and Stephen) alongside the A permit holders, as well as a few experienced trainees.

Two final-year undergraduate students, Holly and Abi, have been undertaking projects looking at parasites in finches and tits respectively. Perhaps unsurprisingly with winter ringing at feeders, we’ve had great success at getting good numbers of faecal samples for them both.

By the end of October we were up and running with sampling and sites on campus. We’re pretty lucky at UEA, situated on a stunning campus with good habitat for ringing and the support of the school. We ring at two separate sites on campus, with feeders dutifully kept topped up by Holly and Abi at the moment. The greenhouses being the bigger site sees the larger ringing sessions as a group, with the rabbit enclosure being used for smaller more manageable sessions with smaller groups or when alone.

Between October 31^st and December 4^th, we managed to fit in 8 sessions on 7 dates with a grand total of 562 birds caught of 17 species. Tits make up the bulk of our catch (71.4%), followed by finches (16.4%). The greenhouse site and rabbit enclosure, whilst not dramatically different habitat and only 700m apart, see noticeably different catches. The greenhouse site does much better with finch catches, whilst the rabbit enclosure seems to do much better for coal tits. Highlighting how much location plays a part in what you catch, even on a small scale.

Highlights for these sites over the month include jays, redwings, bullfinch, and a young male sparrowhawk.

Species catch totals between October 31^st and December 4^th 2018.  

Species	Greenhouse T(N/R)	Rabbit enclosure T(N/R)	Total (New/Retrap).
Blue tit	128 (62/66)	95 (81/14)	223 (143/80)
Great tit	88 (40/48)	61 (51/10)	149 (91/58
Coal tit	7 (3/4)	22 (15/7)	29 (18/11)
Goldfinch	32 (28/4)	0	32 (28/4)
Greenfinch	43 (39/4)	0	43 (39/4)
Chaffinch	13 (11/2)	2 (2/0)	15 (13/2)
Bullfinch	2 (2/0)	0	2 (2/0)
Goldcrest	3 (3/0)	0	3 (3/0)
Wren	4 (3/1)	3 (3/0)	7 (6/1)
Dunnock	13 (6/7)	2 (2/0)	15 (8/7)
Robin	16 (8/8)	3 (3/0)	19 (11/8)
Blackbird	14 (12/2)	0	14 (12/2)
Song thrush	2 (2/0)	0	2 (2/0)
Redwing	1 (1/0)	2 (2/0)	3 (3/0)
Great Spotted woodpecker	2 (0/2)	1 (1/0)	3 (1/2)
Jay	2 (2/0)	1 (1/0)	3 (3/0)
Sparrowhawk	0	1 (1/0)	1 (1/0)
Total	370 (222/148)	192 (161/31)	562 (383/179)

We do fairly well catching Jays on campus, reflecting the good numbers in the area.

Frosty mornings are more and more the norm as we move in winter. This adult male Great tit, ringed on campus in the nest, has reached a considerable size with an 81mm wing.

Redwings are always a treat. Fair numbers have been on campus this Autumn, but most have evaded our nets.

A very exciting catch, particularly for Kirsty and I for whom it was a first. A second calendar year male sparrowhawk. Retained juvenile feathers in the wing, tail, and rump the clues to its age. 

First Waxham visit of the spring brings Portuguese Control Willow Warbler

Earlier in the week the forecast had predicted the wind to swing round from the constant North-Easterly to have some southerly in it, alongside this a band of light rain was predicted... Ideal - a push of migrants then dropped by rain! With this prediction we arrived at Waxham early morning on the Friday ready to catch. Unfortunately the clear skies that greeted us, as far as we could see in every direction, quickly dampened our expectations. As we erected our nets it was clear there had been an arrival but it wasn't a fall, the Waxham breeding birds had simply returned. Whitethroats, Blackcaps, Willow Warblers and Chiffchaffs sang around us but only in the small numbers we expect to breed. For the birds this is great, the good weather meant that everything had gone straight in to breeding grounds and not been grounded at the coast. This was confirmed by our birding friends on UEA Campus who had the first Reed warblers and Grasshopper Warbler back on campus that very morning. However for us it meant just a small catch was on the cards.

And that's what happened...

Total new birds / (retraps/control)

(3) Willow Warblers - 1 Portuguese control, 2 retraps (1 from 09/05/2012)
1 Chiffchaff
3 Whitethoats
1 + (2) Wrens
1 + (1) Long-tailed Tits
3 + (1) Great Tits
1 Chaffinch

The highlight was clearly the Portuguese ringed Willow warbler, but our own retraps were nice also knowing they've been to Africa and back.

The southerly wind meant vismig on the morning was better than recently with yellow wagtails passing over head (all seen were flavissima) and the first Tree pipits. A Ring Ouzel went north while another was on the camping field with 2 Wheatears. 7 local Cranes flew over calling and a Turtle Dove singing from the wood was also a pleasant and increasing rare addition to the day.

Incredible Goldcrest recovery

Just a few days ago we had our first session at our winter feeding site in Horsford Woods, three days later and we've just heard from the BTO about one of our Goldcrests ringed there last December. This bird was retrapped on the 11th September on the island of Eggegrund, on East coast of Sweden, an incredible 1334 km North East of us!

There is a bird observatory there which caught this presumably on its Autumn migration so I wonder how much further North East it has spent the summer! Wouldn't it be great to catch it again this winter...

The bird followed a similar trajectory (though in reverse) to our other long-distance Goldcrest as mentioned previously on the blog back in 2011 - http://uearg.blogspot.co.uk/2011/03/waxham-recoveries-foreign-owl-pellet.html

This year so far at Waxham

It has been a pretty good year at Waxham so far. Due to work commitments and weather I think only one session was done in the spring and we have since ran 6 Sessions (4 in September, 2 in October) in the Autumn for a total of 412 birds.

A young female merlin, the first for UEARG, caught in the meadow pipit nets 

Our first of three Yellow-browed Warblers this Autumn

Waxham offers the group a real variety of species not caught at our other sights. This is very important for our trainees, handling a wider range of species and learning different aging and identification methods. We've had some real highlights this year including a Turtle Dove in the Spring and in the Autumn - Redstart, Pied Flycatchers, Yellow-browed Warblers and most recently Tree Pipit and Merlin, both new species for the group. One of the Autumn sessions was a ringing demonstration for new Masters students studying ecology and conservation at UEA.

First Tree Pipit for UEARG

Totals