Thursday morning promised more in the way of migration when the weather forecast suggested a brighter start and a 5 mph breeze from a WSW direction. I met up with Andy at Oakenclough at 0630 where we were joined today by Bryan who was keen to see a few spring redpolls.
It seemed like we were onto a winner when soon after first light came a flurry of small finches and a tiny passage of high-flying pipits in the clear visibility. After the initial burst of activity we went through a quiet patch with hardly any birds finding the nets followed by a dribble of more redpolls that did.
There was a noticeable lack of Goldcrests and Meadow Pipits this morning, two species that should be on the move in large numbers at the end of March. At 1130 we packed in with a total of just 20 but of mostly birds with high migratory credentials: 11 Lesser Redpoll, 3 Siskin, 2 Goldfinch and one each of Great Tit, Dunnock, Treecreeper and Meadow Pipit.
The shape and colour uniformity of the pipit’s median and greater coverts told us that the Meadow Pipit was an adult bird rather than a second calendar year.
Meadow Pipit
Siskin
Lesser Redpoll
Lesser Redpoll
Lesser Redpoll
During much of the year, and certainly in March, it is virtually impossible to age or to sex a Treecreeper.
Treecreeper
Once home I visited the next stage of the ringing process, entering the twenty birds into DemOn (Demography Online). My blogging birding pal David Gascoigne in Ontario remarked just the other day how quickly the BTO returned information to us about a ringed Siskin we caught at Oakenclough.
David is absolutely correct. Ringers in the UK are helped enormously by the BTO’s online system DemOn that allows the same day input of birds caught, and then with the click of a button the transfer of that data to the BTO and their national database.
Entry page - DemOn - Demography Online - BTO
A glance at the input page of DemOn gives an example of how much data can be collected by ringers. Ringing is not simply a question of fitting a ring and then releasing that bird. Through DemOn bird ringers collect many different sets of information, much of it obligatory, other bits suited to a particular project or interest of the ringer, but all of it highly valuable to further the cause of conservation of birds. The time and place of capture together with the habitat, plus the age, sex and biometrics of the individual add new dimension to the information that ringers are able to provide about a bird’s life history.
