Tuesday 29th
A beautiful, calm, clear day. The clear sky overnight allowed a few sheltered bits to have a brief frost-certainly what was not forecast. We are ever hopeful that a few birds might overshoot from the continent but no sign yet. Five birds were caught- three Dunnocks, a Chiffchaff and a Blackbird. They all showed signs indicating they were breeding locally.
Thae Blackbird was originally caught in 2023 and not seen subsequently. Maybe they are having to roam a bit further to find patches of ground where there might be worms in these dry conditions.
Sunday 27th
An unexpectedly foggy start was burnt off quickly by the sun. Ringing progressed slowly but continues to throw up interesting things. A retrap Great Tit had been ringed in 2017 as a juvenile and had not been seen since 2022. Eight years is a good span for Great Tits around here. There were also two Lesser Whitethroats which were new for the year.
Saturday 26th
A check of the boxes on Sandown Road was much more positive. One brood of three Starlings was ringed, there is a nest with four eggs and another being built. In contrast to the Observatory there was lots of action and two nests had eggs. Just as good the House Martins surprised me. Out of nine boxes only one was empty and five were fully lined, ready to receive eggs. This is at least two or three weeks ahead of last year.
Friday 25th
Much better conditions with just the hint of a cold on shore breeze. There were six new birds - singles of Blackcap, Chiffchaff, Whitethroat, Goldfinch and a surprise two Great Tits.
More nest boxes were checked and apart from tits getting going it was very disappointing in terms of House Sparrows. Although they have been very active and noisy around the Observatory there were no complete nests yet. Starlings are now down to one pair - which had three healthy chicks.
Wednesday 23rd
No ringing possible in wet and windy conditions. However an interesting control has come through. Last Friday a ringed female Mallard was caught at the back of the ringing room. We assumed it was probably one ringed by a local group in Sandwich. But, no, it had been caught and ringed at the Slimbridge Duck Decoy on December 22nd 2019. It was already a full adult then and so has avoided all the guns between Slimbridge and here for over seven years. Having digested that information we looked out of the main hall to see a female Mallard, with a ring, feeding below the feeders. Steffan was able to read the number and it was her, she must be breeding nearby.
Monday 21st
Yesterdays wind dropped but only one of us was available. However the first young birds were heard in a nest box. They were in a Starling box. Several House Martins were prospecting around the Sandown Road boxes.
Saturday 19th
Another breezy, dry, morning and so some more nest boxes were checked with similar results to Wednesday. Again there were less than 50% active and the ones in use varied from ten eggs to half built nest.
Friday 18th
A pleasant morning where quality rather than quantity was the order of the day. There were four new birds and five retraps. The new birds were the first Whitethroat of the season plus single Blackcap, Chaffinch and Chiffchaff. The ringed birds included a Cuckoo and a Woodpigeon from last year plus a Mallard ringed by another group.
The Cuckoo was very interesting. A retrap from two years ago is most unusual.
Wednesday 16th
Too windy for ringing but we started checking the nest boxes. We checked 29 boxes at the south end of the Estate. 19 of these had no activity at all, five were in various stages of being built and the others had at least one egg. One Blue Tit nest already had 11 eggs. The low occupancy is a bit concerning but maybe the last few, dry, breezy weeks have delayed birds- lets hope so.
Sunday 13th
A lovely calm, mild, and overcast start. Fourteen birds were ringed, mostly migrants. They were the first Sedge Warbler of the year, two Blackcaps, five Chiffchaffs, a Willow Warbler, a Song Thrush, a Great Tit and a House Sparrow. Two new Robins were puzzling as the locals have mostly been ringed over the winter but one of these was developing a brood patch.
Saturday 12th
A fascinating set of detections from the MOTUS system. You will remember the Song Thrush which came down from Denmark and Germany via Holland and Belgium before being detected by our receiver and ten moving on to Dungeness. Well it has been detected on its way back. It was first recorded at Caister and then Ormesby on March 24th before crossing to Huiberts, where it was recorded on the 25th and heading into Germany ( see map) by the 27th. As ever results like this raise many questions as give answers. Where did it spend the winter - was it to the west of Dungeness or did it continue to Portugal? Only when we get more receivers will we get even more detail.
Large numbers of thrushes, particularly Redwing and Song Thrushes were reported heading north at migration sites around then. But this gives information about timings and route for an individual.
A Song Thrushes winter journey. The upper track is the return journey this March.
Friday 11th
Another drop in the wind provided good conditions for ringing and a warm sun soon burned the frost off.
Fifteen birds were caught of which seven were new. These were three Blackcaps, two Chiffchaffs, a Goldfinch and a Ring-necked Parakeet. We have not caught one of the latter for several years as they are very good at avoiding nets.
A random check of a couple of nest boxes showed one tit nest in fully lined condition. Wisely it had found some soft Rabbit fur to line the nest, useful when there are still frosts.
No posing with an intelligent bird with a bill like that!
Tuesday 8th
The wind dropped and with a clear sky it was a frosty start with ice on the windscreens. Three Chiffchaffs and three Blackcaps were ringed. The only other bird was a retrap Chiffchaff. At least it shows migrants are arriving.
Sunday 6th
After yesterdays very successful ringers conference we made a brief attempt this morning with a few nets which could avoid the nagging easterly. Although only three birds were caught one of them was a new, adult, Stock Dove. We do not catch many adults. The other two birds were a retrap Wren and a retrap Blackbird.
Friday 4th
The wind relented for a while and it was possible to get some nets up. With mostly clear conditions birds continued to fly over and on towards their nesting sites. Four birds were ringed - the first Goldcrest of the year, two Chiffchaffs and a Blackcap.
Things were so quiet time was spent watching the Little Owl in the field behind the ringing room.
