June 30th
Conclusive proof that activities associated with ringing are good for your health. One of our regular ring readers was by Sandwich Quayside and noticed a ringed Jackdaw. He got his camera out and sacrificed several chips in order to get photos clear enough to read all the ring. He then reported this on the BTO website and has just heard that it had been ringed by us 12 years ago.
June 29th
No nets up today but more checking of the nest boxes. We were expecting that all the tits would have fledged or failed. Thankfully the majority had fledged. There was one box which did not fit the pattern as it contained a Great Tit on newly hatched chicks. This box had a part-built nest the last time it had been checked towards the latter end of May. Presumably this is a bird which failed early and had the time and food to try again.
June 28th
Seven of the eight new birds were fledglings - a Blackbird, two each of Blackcap and Chiffchaff and three Great Tits.
A new adult female Blackcap was of note.
June 26th
A much better morning with 18 new and seven ringed birds.The young birds included a Green Woodpecker, a Wren, five Dunnocks, four Robins, a Lesser Whitethroat, two Whitethroats, two Blackcaps and a Chiffchaff.
One of the birds with a ring was a Blackcap which had been ringed elsewhere. It would seem a few birds are dispersing to new sites once their first brood has fledged or failed.
June 24th
A quiet morning with just three new birds- a Chiffchaff, a Lesser Whitethroat and a Blackcap.
June 21st
Twenty three birds were caught this morning of which 12 were new. It is pleasing to note that there were a variety of juveniles. This included the first Lesser Whitethroat, second Green Woodpecker, two each of Whitethroat, Blackcap and Robin, a Chiffchaff and three Great Tits.
June 17th
Considering the increasing wind it was not possible to ring for too long. There were eight new birds and this included a Green and a Great Spotted Woodpecker.
June 15th
The House Martin nests successfully negotiated the cold nights and are proving healthy. Five broods of four or five chicks were ringed today. Interestingly there is still nest construction going on. The new trend is to line the nest with the fluffy white seeds of the Poplar.
Tuesday 14th
Today there were 11 new birds, all of which had fledged this year.Four more Robins kept their good run going and there was the first fledgling Whitethroat, although the latter have been visible in the field for a few weeks now.
Sunday 12th
There were 11 new and nine re-traps. Four young Blackcaps were the first fledglings of these this year.
Friday 10th
Although there was still a stiff breeze it was not as strong as last night and the leaves on the bushes provided plenty of sheltered spots.
Twenty-three birds were caught of which 11 were new. Four juvenile Robins were the most numerous but the most interesting was a new adult male Chiffchaff, still in breeding condition. Maybe he was lured in by one of the regular males who nests near one of the nets but knows how to avoid them
Thursday 9th
Its not just birds we monitor migrating past here. The following is the latest fascinating result from the Motus tagging project. It refers to a Nathusius’ Pipistrelle bat. This was tagged at Minsmere on May 1st 2022 and was detected by our detectors on May 6th. It then crossed the North Sea and was picked up by a detector on the Belgium coast, It was was then detected twice more making its way up the coast to the Netherlands border. Interestingly it seems the detection here was at dusk, around 2050.
Tuesday 7th
Monitoring of the House Martin nests continues and the situation continues to improve with 75% of the boxes now with at least an egg.
Monday 6th
Having had such problems with the website recently a brief summary of last months totals are in order. We ringed 62 free flying and 106 nestling birds. The first number is low but typical of spring here these days with no passage of birds such as Willow Warbler, indeed there were none of this species ringed at all in May. Tits often lead the way in the pulli totals but there were only nine Great Tits as their early nesting meant several broods could not be ringed whilst ringers were away. Twenty one House Sparrow chicks is not bad for May but the situation is very mixed and we will see how June goes.
Friday 3rd
There were eight new birds this morning, mostly juveniles apart from a new adult Whitethroat. A Blue Tit retrap had been ringed as a young bird in 2016. Not a record breaker but not bad for Blue Tits here.
Wednesday 1st
We keep plugging away but the team today had two new birds namely a Long-tailed Tit and a Great Tit. Three of the Long-tailed Tits caught in the Heligoland at the end of May reappeared today.