Linacre ringing - 9th June 2012

The high winds and threat of rain meant that any idea of mist netting was abandoned. Luckily, we still had 11 nestboxes to check at Linacre, so 4 members of the Sorby Breck Ringing Group set off for another few hours in the woods.

The first box contained 4 young Blue Tits which we able to ring.

Blue Tit



Unfortunately the next few boxes were disappointing, as we found 1 with 2 dead young and the next with 6 cold eggs.  Obviously the bad weather we've been experiencing this week meant that the adults had been unable to find enough food for themselves and their young. Luckily things improved as we carried on around the site and by the end of the morning we'd managed to ring 27 chicks, bringing our total so far this year to 146.

Great Tit from box 34

Two boxes still contained very young birds, so a final trip next week should finish off this year's nestboxes.

Birdwise, the reservoirs were pretty quiet with just 1 brood of Mallards seen (4 young), but we did manage to see 5 Swifts and 3 House Martins feeding over the top reservoir.

I spoke with my trainer about the young Starlings and he said we should be able to ring them this week. I'll post a report as soon as that's done.