Avenue Ringing - 4th January 2015

After a blank month in December, when I didn't manage to get out ringing at all, I was very pleased to get out this morning. There was a hard frost, when we arrived at The Avenue Washlands, but we still managed an excellent start to the year with 122 birds of 14 species ringed (Blue, Great, Willow and Long-tailed Tit, Robin, Bullfinch, Goldfinch, Greenfinch, Chaffinch, Yellowhammer, Reed Bunting, Goldcrest, Jay and Wren).

My personal totals were (new/retrap): Long-tailed Tit 3/1, Blue Tit 3/2, Great Tit 1/2, Willow Tit 0/1, Chaffinch 1/0,Greenfinch 1/0, Bullfinch 1/2, Reed Bunting 1/0, Yellowhammer 1/0, Jay 1/0, Goldfinch 3/0, Goldcrest 0/1, Robin 0/1 and Wren 0/1.

We could have carried on ringing all day, as the birds were still coming thick and fast when we decided to pack up. Instead, we thought it best to give the birds some uninterrupted time to feed up on the feeders.

One of the Blue Tits we caught today was a "control", i.e. a bird that is caught away from the site it was originally ringed. Today's bird was one that had been originally ringed by our group 24km away at Blackburn Meadows in Sheffield in November 2014.

As well as the ringing, I also got a few "year ticks", bringing the total to 53 species so far:

46 - Greenfinch (garden)

47 – Sparrowhawk (over bypass)
48 – House Sparrow (garden)
49 – Reed Bunting
50 – Yellowhammer
51 – Willow Tit
52 – Green Woodpecker
53 - Jay

Ringing Demo and a new species

On Sunday I spent 5 hours carrying out a ringing demo with the Group at Blackburn Meadows in Sheffield. As well as being a very enjoyable time I was also lucky enough to ring a new species of bird - a Snipe. This is my first wader and a beautiful bird to see "in the hand". Here's a photo of one we ringed  a few weeks ago at Blackburn, as Sunday's photos didn't come out too well.

Snipe

 

As well as the Snipe we also had a very good morning with a steady run of birds from every net round, 48 in total. My personal totals were (new/retrap):

Robin 0/1, Reed Bunting 0/2, Bullfinch 1/0, Blue Tit 1/2, Great Tit 1/0, Long-tailed Tit 0/2 and Greenfinch 3/0.

In between net rounds I spotted a Lesser Black-backed Gull flying over, a "year tick".

Later in the afternoon I went into Sheffield and saw a Peregrine Falcon sat on the breeding ledge on St George's Church- another "year tick". Here's a link to the website, which shows live footage from the nest.

Year List update:
111- Lesser Black-backed Gull
112 - Peregrine Falcon

7 year old Great Tit

Whenever we carry out a ringing demonstration, many people ask the question, "How long do birds live?". Obviously ringing and retrapping individual birds can help to answer this question and the BTO has records of "longevity records" on their website here.

At yesterday's ringing demonstration at Blackburn Meadows we retrapped quite a few Great Tits, and this morning I got an email telling me that one of the birds I handled yesterday had first been ringed, as an adult bird, on 24th August 2007, making it at least seven years old!

Looking at the BTO website, we can see that the oldest ever Great Tit was 13 years old when it was hit by a car and killed, so "my" bird still has a way to go.

Another new book and ringing at Blackburn Meadows

Whilst out ringing with the Sorby Breck Group this morning I was very pleased to get my hands on a copy of the new  book "Breeding Birds of the Sheffield Area 2003- 2008", which have been written and produced by the Sheffield Bird Study Group.

 

I haven't had time to read it from cover to cover yet (sorry David!), but after having had a quick look through, I can definitely recommend it. At just £20.00 ( and £5.00 p+p), this 358 page hard back book covering all the breeding birds found in the Sheffield area and the north-east Peak District between 2003-2008, is the bargain of the year. For details of how to get hold of a copy follow this link to our ringing website.

 

After buying the new book I also got on with some ringing this morning. We were at the Sheffield and Rotherham Wildlife Trust's Blackburn Meadows Reserve carrying out another ringing demonstration. The nets were set at 5.30am (thanks Kevin and Sean), and when we arrived at we went out to find the first birds of the morning a Snipe and a Blackbird. The Snipe was a first for Alan, so I watched enviously as he ringed it! Unfortunatly we didn't catch any more today, so I'll have to wait a little longer for this new species.

 

Over the course of the morning we managed to catch another 36 birds (Blue, Great and Long-tailed Tit, and Reed Bunting), which we shared with a dozen or so members of the public. Very enjoyable!

 

 

Blackburn Meadows - 4th February 2012

Wow, was it cold this morning! I was up and out at 6.45am this morning to join up with several other members of the Sorby Breck Ringing Group for a ringing demonstration at Blackburn Meadows in Sheffield. On arrival the car's thermometer read minus 5degress and by the end of the session it had only risen to 0 degrees.

The reedbed at Blackburn Meadows

This site, is a new one for me  and, after a week of freezing conditions the open water was frozen solid. This meant there weren't any waterbirds seen on site, but a couple of Mallards flew over, as did 2 male Goosander and a Grey Heron.

Despite the cold conditions we put out 3 nets within the reedbeds and very soon starting catching birds. Because there were ten ringers present, we kept doing almost continous "net rounds" which meant the birds were very soon proccessed and released so they could get back to the feeding sations.

By the end of the morning we'd had an amazing 74 birds, of which I had handled 14. My totals for today were, new(retraps):

Long-tailed Tit (1), Reed Bunting 5, Wren (1), Great Tit 3 (1), Blue Tit (3), Greenfinch 1

Long-tailed Tit