March ringing, and habitat management

The only ringing in the month, was by Andy at the Pennorth feeders on 24th.  In four hours (with a short period when the net was furled), he caught 19 birds.  The lack of retraps (despite fairly regular ringing at the site) suggests the birds are part of a larger population visiting other feeding stations in the village.  The catch comprised 1 Dunnock, 3 House Sparrow, 5 Blue Tit, 5 Great Tit, 1 Coal Tit, 1 Chaffinch, 1 Goldfinch and 2 Siskin.

Most of the early part of each year is spent cutting our scrub area, in order to try and standardise the year on year vegetation structure close to the CES nets.  Succession to woodland would affect the bird species composition/numbers caught, and add an additional variable for the CES figures. A series of photos of the main net lanes show the result of this year's work, which can be compared with previous pictures (or subsequent ones) to see if we are being successful.

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GN5

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