Another Year Ends

Another spell of settled (high pressure) weather arrived over the Christmas period, so on Boxing Day, Peter, Ted and Jerry tried the hut feeders. In three hours they had caught 16 + (29), and packed up when they began to get some same day retraps. This was the first session of the winter at the "tit" feeders, and most of the Blue Tits were young females (retraps mainly ringed during the autumn scrub netting sessions). The relatively mild weather probably not enticing males away from their territories. When they had finished, Andy collected the "ringing kit" to try a late afternoon session at his garden feeders. In one hour he had caught 19 + (2), mainly Blue Tit. The following morning (27th), he tried again, and in just over an hour he caught another 19 + (2), with an almost identical species mix (and only one bird from the previous day). These three sessions enabled us to start recording the extent of Blue Tit post-juvenile moult, for a new BTO study. The assumption is that birds showing more extensive p-j moult, are likely to be in better condition.

Details of the three feeder sessions - Dunnock (1), Blue Tit 36+ (21), Great Tit 8 + (10), Coal Tit 2, House Sparrow 3, Goldfinch 2 + (1), Greenfinch 1 and Chaffinch 2.

On Friday 28th, Jeremy, Andy and Jerry were at the Llangorse bird crop. In almost four hours they had caught 27 + (3) - mainly Yellowhammer (two of which had been ringed in Jan/Feb 2017). There was only one real catch, as they were unable to move the birds towards the nets again. Sunday 30th saw the final session of the year, with George, Andy and Jerry at the Pennorth bird crop. There were a decent number of Chaffinch (c50+), Reed Bunting (c30) and Yellowhammer (c50), but it proved even more difficult to get the birds into position (until the nets were moved/taken down, and they went straight to feed there !!). After four hours the catch was just 5 + (1), but did include a control Reed Bunting.

Details of the two bird crop sessions - Dunnock 1, Blue Tit 1, Great Tit 2, House Sparrow 2, Chaffinch 3, Reed Bunting 2 + (1) and Yellowhammer 21 + (3).

The December total is 224 (our second highest for the month), and the year total becomes 2384 (our 10th highest, though most recent years have been higher).

young male Yellowhammer (JR)