Thanks to the grim weather of late any opportunities for birding or ringing have been few and far and hence the lack of blog posts. With a forecast of a dry and less windy Saturday morning I arranged to meet Andy and Dave at Oakenclough where we hoped for a ringing session which might discover the changes since our last visit of 5th March.
Five hours of pretty constant work gave us a total of exactly 70 birds caught and a very good selection of 13 species. Evidence of Spring migration came with the catching of new Goldcrests and new Lesser Redpolls, two species which are both typical of March ringing sessions.
One of the Lesser Redpoll bore a ring not of our own series and so is highly likely to have arrived as a recent migrant.
Totals and species caught: 16 Blue Tit, 12 Great Tit, 10 Goldfinch, 8 Coal Tit, 6 Lesser Redpoll, 4 Goldcrest, 5 Chaffinch, 2 Song Thrush, 2 Long-tailed Tit, 2 Robin, 1 Nuthatch, 1 Blackbird and 1 Jay.
Goldcrest
The two Song Thrush were definitely an item as both were caught together and headed off in unison when released; so too with two pairs of Lesser Redpoll and the pair of Long-tailed Tits. Male Lesser Redpolls are now looking especially stunning in their Spring colours, while catching a Song Thrush is something of an occasion.
Song Thrush
Lesser Redpoll
The male Nuthatch proved to be a recapture from previous weeks and a regular visitor to the feeding station.
Nuthatch
At least one Jay has been a regular visitor to the feeding station and while we don’t expect to catch the Clever Crow, we did today.
Jay
We were so busy with ringing that our birding was limited but we did note a pair of Pied Wagtails on territory, one carrying nesting material. Also, a pair of Great-spotted Woodpecker, singles of Buzzard and Kestrel plus a good number of noisy Oystercatchers heading back and forth via the surrounding fields.
Pied Wagtail
There's more news soon from Another Bird Blog.
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