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. 

'Bootiful'

It was a 'bootiful' morning on Saturday, hardly a breath of wind and very mild temperatures. Mist netting was cut short as the sun came up and lit the nets up, it was a pleasant 21 degrees when we packed up.
Birds were a bit thin on the ground , with no obvious ' vis mig' going on.
34 new birds were ringed and for the second time this Autumn no retraps were caught, where have all the local birds gone ?
 The first Goldcrests and Lesser Redpolls of the Autumn were caught.

1st. year Male Goldcrest

Wren 2

Dunnock 2

Robin 2

Blackcap 5, All with good fat reserves.

Chiffchaff 4

Goldcrest 3

Blue Tit 2

Treecreeper 3, unusual to catch  3 in a day at this site

Chaffinch 1

Lesser Redpoll 10, A flock of 18 were flying around.

1st. year Male Lesser Redpoll

Several Common Darters were seen bathing in the sunshine as well as a few Red Admiral.

Common Darter

Swallow Roost

At last the wind abated to give us an opportunity to try a Swallow roost at Martham Pits. 
Dave had checked the site on Wednesday night and had 70 to 100 birds go in, with this in mind we assembled on Thursday evening with fingers crossed hoping some would hang around.
It was fairly quiet at first with about 20 flying around the pits.The nets were checked early on in case anything had gone in unnoticed, 3 Reed Warblers and a Cettis were extracted.
 As the evening progressed the Swallows began to arrive, with about 70 flying about at one point.These were flying quite high and seemed to fly off East to roost somewhere else!
As we approached the nets the usual mutterings were said, ' no birds again',' why didn't they come down', ' should have been here last night ' .... etc. 
Luckily some had stayed and were ready to be extracted from the nets.

Adult male Swallow

In the end 37 Swallow were ringed with 23 1st year birds, 7 adult males and 7 adult females.

Also 3 Reed Warblers and a Cettis Warbler were newly ringed.

We went back to the comfort of Tony's to do the ringing and he also kindly supplied the refreshments.

Chiff's on the move.

We arrived at Winterton just after dawn on Saturday 10th Sept, conditions were very muggy, complete cloud cover and a light SW getting fresher as the morning wore on, by the time we packed up it was a nice 21 degrees C.
As the nets were erected 2 or 3 Chiff's were heard calling, but not much else. Luckily we were in for a few more than that.  It was a good morning for Chiff's and Blackcaps with the added bonus of a juv Spotfly.

The first full grown Spotted Flycatcher we have ringed since 2001!

45 new birds were ringed, amazingly no retraps were caught.

Wren 1

Dunnock 1

Robin 2

Blackbird 1

Whitethroat 1, A late moulting adult.

Blackcap 13 ,  10 Males and 3 Females.  All juveniles apart from one.

Chiffchaff 17, 2 adults the rest juveniles.

Spotted Flycatcher 1

Long-tailed Tit 2

Blue Tit 4

Great Tit 1

Bullfinch 1, an adult female still with a brood patch.

Dave and friend.

A Swift was seen flying over and a Marsh Harrier flew South down the dunes.

Several Speckled Wood butterflies were still on the wing with numerous Common Darter's about, including the male that took a liking to Dave's hat! A Migrant Hawker was also seen.

Haddiscoe Island 2011

On Saturday evening Dave and Justin went to check out our reed bed ringing site on Haddiscoe Island. Rides were cut, nets erected and birds were caught. After ringing the small catch before darkness descended the team left well bitten by an army of mosquitos and midges.

Dave and Justin returned to the Haddiscoe Island reed bed to open the nets early on Sunday morning.

Birds quickly responded to the tape lures and Bearded Tits were soon heard 'pinging' around the net rides. The first round, however, consisted of juvenile Reed and Sedge Warblers with the Bearded Tits finding the nets later on. Most birds caught were juveniles but a few adults were nice to see including a fantastic male Bearded Tit.

 

Male Bearded Tits - Juv (left), Adult (right)

One juvenile Reed Warbler had a particularly warm rump and an unusually light eyes for a juv but any dreams of Blyth's were quickly dispelled with only the third primary being emarginated.

Juvenile Reed Warbler

Dave had a pleasant surprise when he pulled a juvenile Starling from the last bird bag of one round. Justin had seen a flock fly over the reed bed and finding two in a net he managed to extract them before Dave came along ensuring that their identity remained a secret. Both birds were juveniles in post-juvenile moult with one already having much greener feathers suggesting a probable male.

Juvenile Starlings

Despite the gusting wind it was a good catch with 62 new birds being trapped and 1 re-trap Reed Warbler having been originally ringed at the site in August 2007.

Sedge Warbler - 17

Reed Warbler - 26 (1)

Bearded Tit - 15

Starling - 2

Reed Bunting - 2