Late December ringing, Chaffinch with calloused legs, and local sighting of Blackbird

Although the unsettled weather would have proved difficult to arrange further crop sessions, any plans had to be abandoned with the sudden announcement of another Welsh lockdown on 19th December. Only Andy would be able to do any Group ringing (at his garden feeders) under the restrictions. So on Tuesday 21st he had another three hour session for the "winter ringing pilot", and had a useful catch of 23 + (16), made up of Robin 1, Blue Tit 12 + (8), Great Tit 2 + (5), Coal Tit (2), Treecreeper 1, Nuthatch (1) and House Sparrow 7. On Tuesday 29th, he had another "regular" session (not winter ringing pilot), which was interrupted by a sleet shower. The catch of 17 + (8) was made up of Great-spotted Woodpecker (1), Robin 2, Dunnock 1, Blue Tit 12 + (5), Great Tit 2 + (1) and Nuthatch (1). He left two Chaffinch un-ringed, as they were starting to develop scaly legs (see below).

The number of birds ringed in December was 115, making our YTD total 2248. The monthly total is our 5th highest of the last 10 years (range 74 - 255). The annual total is our 9th highest of the last 10 years (1696 - 3007 range). With all the movement restrictions for the last 12 months (preventing some of the more active members from visiting the Lake for several months), a relatively low annual catch was to be expected, so perhaps not too bad a total, given the circumstances. That we had such a respectable total is a credit to the three members that were able to visit as often as possible and ringed 1987 (88%) of the total. The heavy rain over Christmas, raised the Lake flood, so that there was about 6" in the GN3 net lane. This had dropped a couple of inches by the year's end, with only "roof runoff" flooding apparent around the hut.

In the blog for early December, Jerry reported removing the ring from a female Chaffinch, whose leg was becoming badly calloused. This bird had only been ringed by Jerry (as a moulting female in rb2) on 15th July. As he is careful to look for any sign of tarsus damage in this species (and does not ring if there is any evidence), it is surprising that the callousing had developed so quickly. From there being no evidence when ringed, to the growths being so great that it was difficult to insert the tips of the circlip pliers, just five months later.

On 6 December, Mark Waldron managed to photograph the ring (LB21902) on a Blackbird, in the Llangasty car park. A male, with a ring, had been seen there over the last couple of years, but the number hadn't been read. As expected, it was one of "our birds" (though it could easily not have been). He was ringed as a juvenile in the garden on 10 August 2017, and re-caught there on 25 October 2017. Surprisingly, he has not been caught since, presumably having established his territory just outside our regular ringing area. As he hadn't been caught for three years, it would have been a reasonably assumption to think he had moved away, or had died. Mark's sighting has therefore established that he is still alive and active, and has settled only 100m from the place where he was originally ringed - very useful data.