Late January ringing and Lesser Redpoll recovery

The forecasts after mid month continued to be mainly "wet and windy", but a decent day was forecast for Friday 16th, just a couple of days after Martin had contacted Jerry to say that Siskin had arrived at his feeders. Recent visits there had been dominated by Blue Tit, so with a change on the cards Jerry decided to have another go. His catch of 30 + (3) was made up of Dunnock 1, Blackbird 1, Goldcrest 1, Starling 1, Blue Tit 5 + (3), Chaffinch 1, Goldfinch 2, and Siskin 18 - so a good decision. Forecasts to the month end were still mainly wet, but Andy was able to continue to operate the "walk in" trap, and in 4 sessions he caught a total of 16 + (3) Starling.

The weather on Saturday 31st had improved so Andy was able to complete an afternoon WRP 7 session. His catch was a bit reduced from earlier sessions with 13 + (14), made up of Blackbird (1), Blue Tit 8 + (8), Coal Tit 1 + (1), Great Tit 2 + (3), Chaffinch 1, and Goldfinch 1 + (1).

Our total for January was 119+ (65), the second highest of the last decade for this month.

Lesser Redpoll ANY3827 was ringed on 17 October 2025 at Cannock Chase, Staffordshire and was caught in the scrub area on 21 November - 35 days, 126 km, 223 degrees.