The plan.
Yesterday,30th October, a group of Northants Ringing Group ringers assembled at Stortons Nature Reserve, Northampton. The aim was to try catching some winter migrants namely Fieldfare and Redwing.It was a chily start, about four degrees centigrade, and damp when we arrived just after 6am.
The Beast.
The nets were soon up, including a net system, known as 'The Beast', and built by group member John Boland . This net, which is two sixty foot mist nets, one on top of the other, allows us to reach a hieght of about six meters and hopefully stand a chance of catching thrushes as they fly across the hedge tops.The wait.
Each net round was approached with an air of expectation. Would we have wintering thrushes or, as is often the case, a net full of Blue and Great Tits.
As the morning warmed up, and the birds began moving around, we started to have some good catches and despite the lack of thrushes we were surprised by the number of Blackcaps and Chiffchaff we caught. The Blackcaps were mainly first year females and may have been moving through on their way Southward.
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| Ringing base for the morning |
The results.
After some six hours we decided to call it a day, as the temperature dropped and the wind started to increase.
We were delighted to have processed eighty seven birds of which sisxty six were new birds and twenty one were retraps (birds that had been ringed previously on-site, or possibly elsewhere). Data from retraps is very important because it gives us information on species longevity and site fidelity, and in the case of migrants their possible migration routes.
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| Redwing (Turdus iliacus) |
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| Goldcrest (Regulus regulus) |
The following species were processed. The figure in brackets denotes the number of retraps.
Chiffchaff 9. Long-tailed Tit 10 (9). Wren 2 (2). Goldcrest 7 (3). Robin 3 (3). Reed Bunting 7. Blue Tit 9 (3). Blackcap 7
Redpoll 1. Dunnock 2. Great Tit 1. Greenfinch 2. Blackbird 1. Cetti's Warbler 3 (1). Redwing 2.
In addition to the birds processed we saw Red Kite, Sparrowhawk, Raven, Cormorant and two Stonechat.
