More Crest's

We were again at Winterton on Sunday 17th , the usual nets were erected.
It seemed rather quiet apart from several Blackbird and Redwing flying over. It was raining when we arrived but soon cleared to leave a nice warm morning with a light NE wind, temperature eventually getting up to a balmy 12 degrees C!

1st W Male and Adult Female Blackbird

Goldcrest and Robins were the predominate birds ringed again, only one warbler was caught.

It was good to get another Marsh Tit and 3 Treecreeper were a nice suprise. I think the Tits have now found the feeders to their liking !!!

Treecreeper

Ringing totals as follows, retraps in brackets. 107 were ringed and another 13 retraps processed.

GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER; 1

WREN; 8

DUNNOCK; 3 (1)

ROBIN; 16 (3)

BLACKBIRD; 9

SONG THRUSH; 2

REDWING; 4

CHIFFCHAFF; 1

GOLDCREST; 29

LONG-TAILED TIT; (1) Ringed 21/09/2008

MARSH TIT; 1

COAL TIT; 1

BLUE TIT; 15

GREAT TIT; 6 (7) One from 08/10/2007  another 11/10/2008

TREECREEPER; 3

CHAFFINCH; 4

SISKIN; 4

1ST W Male Siskin

Adult Marsh Tit

At least 400 Pinkfeet were in the area and 2 Woodcock were flushed early morning. A Comma butterfly was seen sun bathing later on.

Another Brambling was caught in the garden later in the afternoon.

1st W Male Brambling

Crest's, Ducks and Mel's birthday !

The weekend looked good again, bird's were everywhere!
The 10th Oct was going to be a busy day, ringing at Winterton  in the morning, Ducks at Hickling in the evening and a net up in the middle of the afternoon in the garden for a couple of hours! All this and it was Mels' birthday.
The nets were erected on Saturday night at Winterton by Tony, Gary and Dave ready for an early start next morning. Whilst putting the nets up Dave heard a couple of Yellow broweds calling and Thrushes  were still arriving in off the sea.
Sunday arrived with clear skies and a light Easterly blowing, the usual Pinkfeet could be heard leaving their roost and the Cranes 'whooping ' in the distance. Every bush seemed to have a bird in, so the nets were eagerly checked.
As usual we left the rare birds for other people to ring while we concentrated on the more common stuff! It was a fantastic morning catching 159 birds, so it was all hands to the pump.

'The booker' ,Tony.

 'The checker' , Dave

Sharon putting her new found knowledge to use in ageing a Garden Warbler.

It was great to see the return of so many Goldcrests after such a disastrous autumn last year, we only ringed 7 in 2009! One individual had a crossed bill but seemed to be in good condition.

Goldcross 

159 birds were caught with 147 being new, we had the first Redwings and Siskins of the year. Retraps in brackets.

WREN; 1

DUNNOCK; 7 (2)

ROBIN; 35 (2) One originally ringed as an adult 29/04/2006.

BLACKBIRD; 2

SONG THRUSH; 7 (2)

REDWING; 3

GARDEN WARBLER; 1

BLACKCAP; 6

CHIFFCHAFF; 8

WILLOW WARBLER; 1 Rather greyish individual.

GOLDCREST; 64

LONG-TAILED TIT; 2 (3)

BLUE TIT; 3

GREAT TIT; 1 (2)

CHAFFINCH; 4 (1)

SISKIN; 2

GARDEN WARBLER

1ST. WINTER REDWING

WILLOW WARBLER

In recent weeks there have been lots of Jays about, with several seen collecting acorns, also seen by Tony was the first Woodcock of the autumn. Also several Common Darters are still about .

When I eventually arrived home, the garden was also alive with birds, so a 40' net was quickly erected.

This produced another 12 birds, the best being 2 Brambling and a Coal Tit.

1st. WINTER FEMALE BRAMBLING

My new trainee.

Finally to round the day off the first visit this Autumn for Ducks was pencilled in at Hickling.

The team ready for action complete with frog legs!

James had kindly invited us along again and has been feeding the pond for a number of weeks. Plenty of Teal had been using the pond. Nets were set in the usual pattern, about 100 Teal and 7 Mallard were seen flying around.

Eventually 9 new Teal were ringed.

 1st.W Male Teal,  some small green feathers can be seen above the eye.

A more advanced 1st. W Male Teal.

Teal tail showing adult and juvenile type feathers.

Tail end

During the course of the week several falls were reported on the websites, mainly Robins. We were looking forward to the weekend to catch up with some of them ! 
Nets were erected on the Friday night in strong southerly winds and torrential rain !!The weather forecast for Saturday was good so it was going to be worth the effort.
Saturday saw a depleted team meet at Winterton for 6am,we were greeted with light Southerly winds and a mild early morning, later lovely sunshine and 17 degrees C.
104 new Birds and 17 retraps were caught, mostly Robins and Dunnocks, the numbers had dwindled somewhat from earlier in the week. At least we got the tail end of the falls.

 Robin

 We decided to leave the nets up for Sunday morning, but with strong SW winds blowing and most of the birds moving on it was very quiet and only 15  new birds were caught with no retraps. 


Ringing totals, retraps in brackets and then Sunday totals in RED ;

WREN; 8 (1)
DUNNOCK; 13 (2),  4
ROBIN; 22, 1
BLACKBIRD 1, 1
SONG THRUSH; 5
BLACKCAP; 2, 1
CHIFFCHAFF; 4, 1
GOLDCREST; 6
LONG TAILED TIT; 13 (6) One originally ringed 02/09/2006, 1
MARSH TIT; 1
COAL TIT 3 (1) Originally ringed 14/09/2008
BLUE TIT; 15 (2), 3
GREAT TIT; 7 (5), 2
CHAFFINCH; 4, 1

 Song Thrush, all were greyish continental types.

A flock of 12/15 Siskin were flying about all morning, several Jay's were seen. Cranes were heard in the distance and the Pinkfeet were very noisy.

Common Darter's, Migrant Hawker and a Red Admiral were on the wing still.

 A Hornet wasp was extracted from the nets, delicately ! A large Grass Snake was seen  basking in the sun.

 Chiffchaff