Linacre Ringing - 30th March 2019

This morning I was down at Linacre for the first ringing session since January with 3 other members of Sorby Breck Ringing Group. We got on site at 05:30, and the first bird we caught was a retrap Chiffchaff. On checking, we found that it had been ringed, as a 3 (born that year), at Linacre, in August 2018. Great record!

The rest of the morning was steady, with the following birds caught and ringed (new/retrap): Dunnock 0/1, Robin 0/1, Blackbird 0/1, Chiffchaff 2/1, Goldcrest 1/0, Long-tailed Tit 2/1, Coal Tit 1/0, Blue Tit 4/3 and Jay 0/1.

The retrap  Dunnock was first caught and aged by us, at Linacre, as a 5, in January 2015, meaning it was born in 2014. This was the first time it had been retrapped.

One of the Blue Tit retraps had also been ringed by the group (me in this case), as a pullus, in one of our boxes (c.12) last year on 29th May. This was also, the first retrap of this bird.

Other birds seen during the ringing session were: Tawny Owl (2 seen), Buzzard (1 over), Sparrowhawk (1 over), Kestrel (1 over), Canada Goose (2 flew over), Blackcap (1 heard singing in the ringing site, the first Linacre sighting of 2019) and Raven (2 seen flying over).