The enforced three month absenteeism from our Cockerham ringing site was both worrying and frustrating, more so when thinking about information that was probably missed.
Here below is an example, a Chaffinch ringed on one side of the divide on 10 November 2021 and then recaptured 25 February 2022. The record nicely illustrates how a common and seemingly unexciting Chaffinch can provide an interesting recovery.
Adult male Chaffinch ALP8327 was captured, then ringed and released at Cockerham on 10 November 2021, one of three Chaffinches and 13 other birds caught that morning. The Chaffinch was recaptured by Borders Ringing Group at Garvald, a hamlet near Dewar in the Moorfoot Hills, Scottish Borders area of Scotland on 25 February 2022.
Chaffinch - Cockerham to Dewar
Chaffinch - adult male
A glance at the direction of travel shows a direction of travel as due North at a time of year when wintering Chaffinches are known to migrate.
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On Tuesday morning Andy and I decided to try out our newly acquired ringing site at Warton near Preston where until recently there had been over 1000 Linnets, perhaps as many as 1500. So numerous were the Linnets that the farmer told us how on a dozen or more occasions the combined weight of so many Linnets (1000/1500 x 18 grams) had snapped the overhead wires above the set-aside field, lines that the Linnets used as a launch pad and resting spot.
The farm is a dairy farm only where crops are not grown, so apart from Swallows, owls in the outbuildings and common hedgerow species like Wood Pigeon, Dunnock, Blackbird and Chaffinch, the bird life is run-of-the-mill. The fields of agri-environment provide more bird interest in autumn and winter, especially for ringers.
Linnets
When we arrived about 0830 we counted more than 500 Linnets already on site. Unfortunately the Linnets did not perform as we hoped whereby we managed to catch the grand total of two.
Linnet
It was the old story that we know only too well after five years of trying to catch a species that shares some human attributes of being shrewd, cautious, wily and wary when suspecting danger.
There was a Kestrel that watched proceedings from atop the poles, together with a calling and circling Buzzard from nearby woods, but it seemed that the Linnets were more wary of two humans in their plot rather than winged predators.
Kestrel
Just as the aforementioned Chaffinch on its way north, the Linnets too are daily reducing in numbers, and where by early April there will be a few pairs in the farm hedgerows once the winter flock has left for pastures new and north of here.
The weather is due to turn wet windy again until perhaps Saturday. Stay tuned friends, there will be more news and views soon.
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