Mid/Late November visits

On Jerry's regular visits to the Lake up to mid month, it was always pretty windy, but on Monday 16th, the wind dropped at lunchtime, so he abandoned his maintenance work (currently clearing the fence-lines), to put a net at the nyger feeders. In about two hours he had caught 8 + (5) - less than he was expecting, judging from the amount of nyger that was being taken. It's likely that "tits" had switched to the nyger feeders, when the sunflower had all been taken, and with the sunflower feeders now once more filled, they were back on them. The catch comprised mainly the "target" finches with 4 + (1) Goldfinch, 1 Siskin, 1 Chaffinch and 2 Greenfinch.

The wind direction veered round to the north, and finally eased on Sunday 22nd, so Gareth tried the usual scrub nets, plus a net at the nyger feeders (to boost his catch - most of which was in this net). He had a total of 21 + (13) included 6 + (2) Goldfinch, 5 Greenfinch and 4 Lesser Redpoll. At the end of the catch, the YTD total was 2460 birds ringed, equaling the Group's fourth highest annual total. With over a month to go we should get well over 2500, though unlikely to get into the top three years, as they are all over 3000.

One of Gareths Lesre catch.

A heavy frost on Monday morning (with the temperature hovering just above zero), saw Alan and Jerry making a first visit to the bird cover crop at Pennorth. The catch of 38 + (3) included 16 + (1) Reed Bunting
(the retrap ringed in rb2 in July 2014), and 3 Linnet (first of the year). Although 8 Blue Tit were ringed, a further 20/25 were released at the nets, when bird bags started to run short. Two retrap Blue Tits were ringed as a nestling a few months earlier (rb1 box), and one from the previous day at the hut feeders, approx 2.5 km away.

Two short nets by a high hedge were disappointing

Our 'base' out in the wildbird cover crop

General view down to the nets and the lake beyond

The first net-round full of Blue Tits!! (and not a feeder in sight!!).
Most of the Bluti were released unringed!

On Tuesday, Carlton had a very disappointing 2 + (1) from the scrub nets, and on Wednesday, Jerry had a slightly better 3 + (6). Quiet catches have the benefit of allowing time for maintenance tasks, or to check through the annual/species, totals. So a Coal Tit, ringed by Gareth, brought this year's total to 24, equaling the previous highest year total, and the first Blue Tit ringed by Jerry, was the 2500th bird for the year.

Thursday saw the wind drop completely (prior to another spell of wet/windy weather forecast to arrive), so Andy and Jerry tried the Llangorse bird cover crop. In just over a couple of hours they had ringed 29 birds, including 2 Reed Bunting and 14 Yellowhammer. It will be interesting to compare the species' composition of the Pennorth and Llangorse sites, the latter being much closer to the hill ground when most of the Yellowhammer presumably originate. With the predicted windy weather until the end of the month, this will likely be the last November session, the total for the month was an unremarkable 115, and the YTD 2538.