Ringing Weekend

It's the first weekend of the Easter holidays and I managed to get out ringing twice. Yesterday I was out at Meersbrook Park in Sheffield, where we (Sorby Breck Ringing Group), put on a ringing demonstration for the local Wildlife Watch group. We managed to ring roughly 30 birds, including a nice male Blackcap (my first to be ringed this year), a Chiffchaff, several Bullfinches, a Goldfinch and this colour-ringed Long-tailed Tit.

Long-tailed Tit

The Long-tailed Tit is part of an on-going study run by the University of Sheffield, where birds are ringed in the Rivelin Valley and their dispersal is then studied. We sent off the details of this bird, so hopefully, I'll get some details back and will be able to update the blog.

Today's ringing session took place at a private site in Wingerworth, Chesterfield. We'd been told that there were good numbers of Siskin coming to the feeders, so went expecting to catch a few of this species. As it turned out, we heard, but didn't see or ring, any Siskins at all, but instead we managed to catch and ring 14 Lesser Redpolls. Very nice!! Included in this number was a "controlled" bird, i.e., one that had already been ringed elsewhere, by another ringer. I'll update the blog as soon as I hear details.

My totals for today were, new/retrap:
Great Tit 2/1, Blue Tit 0/2, Long-tailed Tit 0/1, Bullfinch 2/0, Lesser Redpoll 2/0, Chaffinch 1/0.

Also on site today were: a singing Blackcap, a Blackbird sitting on a nest, a Tawny Owl on 2 eggs in a box and a drumming Great-spotted Woodpecker.