Ringing: April
Wednesday 8th A lovely, warm, sunny day. With lots of apparent nest building activity I thought it best to start checking the nest boxes. This gave mixed results. In the Elms only nine of the 21 boxes showed activity where as along Guilford Road nine of the 13 boxes had activity. Two of the tit boxes had started their clutch…
Ringing: March
Sunday 29th A clear night ensured migrants are keeping going and not stopping here. The four new birds were all passing through- singles of Siskin, Redwing, Chiffchaff and Chaffinch. Saturday 28th Some interesting bits from Thursday. First was the finding of a Robin’s nest, with four eggs, along Sandown Road. The other bits involve information on colour ring sightings. The…
Ringing: February
Thursday 26th Another field sighting of a ringed bird. This time a darvic-ringed Mediterranean Gull on Restharrow Scrape. We have contacted the co-ordinator and should hear back shortly. Wednesday 25th A warm, settled, start was forecast but still a bit of a surprise. Although we could not ring yesterday today proved well worth it. Thirty-two birds were caught of which…
Ringing: January
Please watch out for colour ringed birds and report them to us. Wednesday 28th The promise of a calm morning was enough to tempt us out and we were not disappointed. The calm and clear did result in a frost which melted away once the sun got up. Thirty-four birds were caught of which seven were new. This included…
Ringing: December
Thursday January 1st 2026 Please watch out for and record colour ringed birds. I earlier mentioned about the stories of the neck-collared Barnacle Geese. These had been photographed by one of our keen observers. When I saw the flock today I could not see any collared ones. Have they moved on or were they elsewhere on the marshes? I saw…
Ringing: November
Sunday 30th The weather continues to swing from one thing to another very quickly and today was forecast to be dry. As it was clear ice and frost gathered as dawn came along but the sun melted it quickly in the places exposed to it. It was enough to have a morning for the next period of the winter project.…
Ringing: October
Wednesday 22nd A lovely, calm, day with warm sunny intervals – the lull before the storm. Today might well be the last time for about a week when conditions are suitable to ring and it was pleasing to be joined by some of our trainees. It was an interesting morning with 95 new birds plus two birds with rings from…
Ringing: September
Tuesday 30th A lovely calm day with little cloud helped a big catch as birds headed south. A small group of us with one or two surprise guests ringed 268 birds with just seven subsequent encounters (all seven bearing our rings). The majority were Chiffchaffs (120) and Blackcaps (111). The steady trickle of Goldcrests increased to 21 and there were…
Ringing: August
Sunday 31st The month signed out with another, slightly unexpected calm start. There were 36 new birds all, bar two, were migrants. The residents were a Great Tit and a juvenile female Cetti’s Warbler. The latter is one of the few UK passerines which can usually be sexed on biometrics. The male is longer winged and heavier. The flow of…
Ringing: July
Wednesday 30th It was good to be able to get a team out today and they were rewarded with a successful morning. There were 58 new birds of 14 species. The highlight was a juvenile Cuckoo. Colour was added by a Jay and a Green Woodpecker. Migrants are definitely on the move and, although we still have not caught a…