BIRD RINGING SESSION AT STORTONS

Bird Ringing session at Storton’s on Thursday 24th October .

A small band of multi layered ringers rolled up just before dawn. Well insulated for a typical October day, but by mid-morning layers were being discarded as the weather was more Spanish than St James.

A total of 58 birds were processed, of 14 different species. Most of the summer migrants have now departed and the mixture of birds was typical of an Autumn/Winters day ringing.

Greenfinch have been having a tough time of late, but on site during the breeding season there was quite a vocal presence of calling males. Today’s Greenfinch’s were all born this year, which could be a sign of a good local breeding season for this finch. 

Details of birds

New                                      Retraps

WREN                  4

GOLDCREST       4

CHIFFCHAFF       3

BLUETIT               7                        9

REED BUNTING  1

GOLDFINCH        6

ROBIN                  2                         1

BLACKCAP          1

DUNNOCK           4

GREAT TIT          2                         7

GREENFINCH     3

CETTI’S WARBLER                      1

MOORHEN          1

WATER RAIL                                2

TOTAL OF 58 BIRDS   14 SPECIES 

We also colour ringed our first Moorhen as part of the National Moorhen colour ringing project. The project is led by PhD student Aurora Gonzalo-Tarodo for the Waterbird Colour-Marking Group.

Despite being common, widespread, and familiar the Moorhen is an understudied species in Britain and Ireland. There is limited information available on its movements at local, national and international levels.  

To address these gaps in knowledge, the National Moorhen Colour-ringing Project is coordinating efforts among a team of ringers and independent ringing groups to mark birds across Britain and Ireland. 

By increasing the number of birds ringed and the number of recoveries and sightings, the project aims to discover the seasonal movements of Moorhen, including local dispersal, spring and/or autumn migration within the UK and overseas and other aspects of their lifecycle such as site fidelity and survival.

 

The first Colour ringed Moorhen at Storton's Nature reserve

processed as an Adult female.

Well deserved recognition.

 

John Woollett, one of the founders of the Northants Ringing Group, was one of two recipients of the Oliver Rackham Award at the recent Beds, Cambs & Northants Wildlife Trust AGM on 19^th October.

John has been recognised for his many years as Warden at Stortons since it became a reserve 25 years ago.

In that time John has trained many ringers, myself and my son included, and his former trainees are still active at Stortons.

Below is photograph of John receiving his award and also a link to the Trusts website where you can read more about the recipients of this years awards and the other diverse work that the Trust undertakes.

https://www.wildlifebcn.org/

Apple Day ringing demonstration. 19th October 2024

 Kenny Cramer supplied the narrative, and pictures.

On Saturday 19^th October a ringing demonstration was conducted at the annual Apple Day event at the community orchard at Woughton on the Green.

 For once, I have to be fair to the weather forecast and say that it did exactly what it said on the tin. It was definitely a game of two halves with persistent and occasionally heavy rain hampering our set-up, and causing us to huddle under our gazebo until it dried up enough to open nets. After an initial flurry of tits, we had to close up again while another shower passed through, but then the clouds broke and we were treated to an unseasonably warm and sunny autumn day.

 Always a popular event, the early rain did not dampen anyone's enthusiasm and we were soon surrounded by an eager group who were suitably impressed with the birds we were able to muster - even if this was predominantly blue tits!

 Despite the late and stuttering start, we managed to accumulate 77 birds of 8 species for our demonstration, which included 2 retraps from last winter. As mentioned, blue tits ruled the roost with 52 individuals handled and 16 great tits further bolstered the numbers. The slightly more unusual birds included singles of chiffchaff, woodpigeon, and coal tit. Dunnock, robin and lotti also gave our audience something different to look at.

 Other birds seen and heard despite the commotion of the event (and the live jazz trio) included green woodpecker, jay, red kite and ring-necked parakeet, which seem to be getting established in this part of the city.