Not a lot doing !

Its rather quiet at the moment at our ringing sites !
Gary and I ventured to Ludham on Saturday 16th, we were later joined by Nathan, James and Amy.
Amy was telling us stories of a Stoat her dog had found and Nathan found a dead Weasel hanging half eaten in a Hawthorn on site.
 The site unfortunately has been plagued with Wood Pigeons, these seem to be able to eat our seed as fast as we can put it down. We must thank James again for his sterling efforts at feeding this site.
Only 5 Reed Bunting were caught 3 new and 2 retraps, these being originally ringed 21/01/12 and 24/11/12.

Drake Mallard

The second session of the weekend was at Hickling to catch Ducks. A crack team was assembled with Sharon, Mick,Tony, Gary and I.

The team, scary !

About 30 Mallard and 20 Teal approached the pond, but with 6 Mallard  'bouncing' the nets it wasn't going to be our night.
We eventually managed to catch 2 Mallard and a Teal, so all was not lost. 

Adult (6) Blue Tit with bleached primary tips.

An interesting Blue Tit was caught in the garden at Ormesby on Saturday 16th. This was a retrap and was in normal plumage when ringed but when retrapped had bleached primary tips, these being  more striking on the closed wing.

Adult (6) Blue Tit with bleached primary tips.

Brambling stay and Swans arrive.

Saturday 2nd February, believe it or not saw our first group ringing trip of the year!
We decided to have an afternoon session at Ludham, The whoosh net was again brought into action.
The Finch and Bunting flock has been quite sporadic here this Winter, mostly put off by the large numbers of Wood Pigeons present.
15 birds were caught, these comprised surprisingly of 14 Brambling (2 retraps) and a Chaffinch.
The retraps were both from last year, 24/11/12 and 16/12/12.
There were a few Yellowhammer and Reed Bunting about, hopefully they will pick up in the next few weeks.

A family party of Whooper Swan

In the nearby fields at Catfield  several hundred wild Swans had recently turned up, at least 250 Bewick's Swan were present with about 15 Whooper Swan among them, producing some fantastic viewing opportunities.

Noisy Bewick's Swan

Adult Whooper with 2 of this year's young.

One of the Bewick's had a white colour ring with a black inscription but unfortunately I could not read it!