One More to Go

Saturday, August 25th 2018

It was CES 11 today so we only have one more to go to complete 26 years without missing a single visit.  A tremendous achievement.

A cool and slightly more windy morning than expected greeted the bird ringers for a 0515 start.  The Bullfinches were out in force and 25 new ones were ringed.  They can breed late in the season and this one was obviously a late youngster as it was showing no signs of post juvenile moult.

Bullfinch

Some weeks ago on the blog there were photographs of juvenile Robins, showing how they changed from a speckled breast to just a few red feathers.  Pupils from Wavell School were following the Robins.  The photograph below shows one still moulting so it has a few wayward feathers.  Its red breast is almost complete.

Juvenile Robin

Later in the day a youngster arrived in the ringing room, having completed its moult and showing its pristine feathers.

Juvenile Robin

Many visitors have seen the Sparrowhawk fly through and around the back garden.  On one of its circuits today it was caught in a mist net.  As it was ringed and processed it was found to be a young male born in 2017. 

Male Sparrowhawk

By the afternoon it appeared that many of the Bullfinches were feeding or resting well away from the nets, but the Great Tits were wide awake and arriving in the ringing room in numbers!  Many of the 27 retrapped birds had been ringed in the nest boxes.  There were some who had nested elsewhere as six Great Tits were newly ringed.

Most Willow Warblers and Garden Warblers have left Foxglove and headed south as the summer season draws to a close.  Chiffchaffs and Blackcaps will still be on the reserve for a few more weeks. 

In total 180 birds were processed.

As always, ringing is a team effort.  A huge thank you to everyone who helped and supported the ringers today.


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