Winterton Ringing

Ringing continues at Winterton this Autumn with mixed catches. The last two Saturdays have produced 74 new and 8 retraps on the 15th and 31 new and 9 retraps on the 22nd. 
The highlight has been  the number of Reed Bunting we have been catching in a net ride of small bushes out in the middle of nowhere, 16 so far this October with no retraps! Also on 22nd an 'Abietinus' race Chiffchaff was caught.  

 1st. Winter (3) female Reed Bunting

                             15th Oct                    22nd Oct  
                                   (Retraps in brackets)

Meadow Pipit          1                                2

Wren                       8 (1)                          5 (2)
                                                                  one from 29/09/2007

Dunnock                 1 (1)

Robin                    12                                1 (1)

Blackbird              13 (2) one ringed as a 1st Winter 30/09/2007

Song Thrush            3                                2

Redwing                                                    1 

Blackcap                 3                                1

Chiffchaff                1                                 2 including 'Abietinus' 

Goldcrest              11                                 3 (3) All recent

Long-tailed Tit        3                                 2

Coal Tit                                                     1

1st Winter (3) Coal Tit 

                            15th Oct                                 22nd Oct

Blue Tit                 2 (2) one from 20/09/2009       2 (1)

Great Tit               6 (1) one ringed 17/09/2006        (2)

Treecreeper          1

Chaffinch              2 (1)  17/10/2010                     1

Bullfinch                1

Siskin                                                                   1  

1st Winter (3) female Siskin 

                             15th Oct                                 22nd Oct

Lesser Redpoll                                                          1

Yellowhammer          1

Reed Bunting            5                                              6

Some interesting tail patterns were seen;

1st. Winter male Blackcap

Quite an assortment ! Reed Bunting

A flock of at least 20 Siskin are present in the area but Redpolls have declined, two of 'our' Redpolls have recently been re trapped at Waxham a journey of 4km. On the morning of the 22nd Tony flushed 3 Woodcock out of the woods while opening the nets.

Common darters are still about and in the sunshine of the 15th both Comma and Red Admiral butterflies were seen sunning themselves.

Little Auk

On Friday 21st  we arrived at the beach car park as normal to erect the nets for the following morning, on returning to the cars we found this unfortunate Little Auk dead! It's breast bone was prominent so we assume it had starved to death.

  

   

Winterton again...

Winterton was again the venue for ringing on Saturday 8th October. The nets were erected on the Friday night in 25mph NW 's with the hope it would calm down for the morning. Luckily the wind had eased to a more manageable 12mph Northerly, it was much cooler of late only managing a cool 11 degrees C.
Sadly it seems most of the Lesser Redpolls have moved on, there were however a few Redwing and Song Thrush going over.

'Continental' Song Thrush (3)

A bit of a mixed bag in ringing terms with the Warbler numbers dwindling now, but still Meadow Pipits on the move in the dunes.

40 new birds were ringed and 5 retraps, the highlight being a Yellow-browed Warbler, the first since 2007. Among the retraps was a Chiffchaff that was originally ringed in the Spring on 23rd April 2011, where has this been hiding all this time ?

Goldcrest and Yellow-browed Warbler

Meadow Pipit 4

Wren 1 (1) originally ringed 06/09/2009

Dunnock 1

Robin 1

Song Thrush 1, very grey looking, 'continental' type

Blackcap 1

Yellow-browed Warbler 1

Chiffchaff (1) ringed 23/04/2011 as 1st. summer female (5F)

Goldcrest 4
Long-tailed Tit 8
Blue Tit 6 (2) one ringed 14/09/2008
Great Tit 2
Chaffinch 4
Greenfinch 1
Lesser Redpoll 2
Reed Bunting 3

Yellow-browed.

2 Swallow were seen battling against the wind and another fly-over Grey Wagtail, Siskins and Brambling were seen flying over the tree tops. Common Daters were still on the wing considering the cooler temperatures with a pair seen in tandem.

Redpoll fest.

Saturday 1st October we were again at Winterton, the day started very mild with very light winds, by the time we packed up its was a glorious sunny day with temperature up to 23.5 degrees C.
It was a very good day's ringing with 97 new birds, 1 control and 2 retraps ( both from the previous week).
Redpolls had increased significantly and these produced most of the interest, with 37 Lesser's ( including a Belgium control ) and 1 Common being caught amounting to our best day tally ever.

Both ends of the spectrum.

1st Winter (3) female left and Adult male (4) right, Lesser Redpoll

Belgian (Brussels) ring

Belgian ringed adult male Lesser Redpoll

The catch also included the first Meadow Pipits of the Autumn, there were up to 20 in the area.  Also a late juvenile Bullfinch.

Meadow Pipit 4                                                 

Wren 7 (1)

Dunnock 2

Robin 1

Blackbird 1

Blackcap 4

Chiffchaff 2 (1)

Goldcrest 5

Long-tailed Tit 3

Blue Tit 9

Great Tit 13

Chaffinch 5

Goldfinch 1

Lesser Redpoll 36 (1 Belgian control)

Common Redpoll 1

Bullfinch 1

Reed Bunting 2 


The Common Redpoll was only the second we have caught at Winterton. The first one was ringed 14 November 1995, it's been a long wait !

1st. Winter (3) Common (left) and Lesser (right) Redpolls

1st. Winter (3) Common (left) and Lesser (right) Redpolls

Juvenile (3) male Bullfinch

Other birds seen on the day included 2 Brambling, a fly-over Grey Wagtail and several Pink feet.

Common Darters were still very much in evidence and a Small Copper butterfly was seen.