Sheffield Ringing

After 3 weekends of wind and rain, which has put pay to any ideas of ringing, I managed to get out again yesterday with 3 other members of The Group, to our private site in Sheffield. The site is a private garden with several apple trees, and the owner lets most of the apples fall to the ground. As a result, of the 45 birds processed, 15 (12 new and 3 retraps) were Blackbirds! Hopefully one of the longer -winged birds may end up in a garden in Sweden next Spring.

Along with these birds we also managed to catch another 30 birds made up as follows (new/retraps): Wren 2/0, Dunnock 3/1, Long-tailed Tit 1/1, Blue Tit 4/4, Great Tit 2/4, Nuthatch 1/0, House Sparrow 1/0, Chaffinch 2/1, Goldfinch 2/0, and Bullfinch 1/0.

In other news, the Shags are still present at Linacre, but have decreased in number from 8 to 3. 5 juveniles, presumably the 5 that have "gone missing" from Linacre, have appeared at The Derbyshire Wildlife Trust's Carr Vale Reserve at Bolsover.