Winter Thrushes whooshed!

There have been plenty of winter thrushes coming to the apples in the garden and I was able to put my whoosh net to good use. Three Fieldfare and a Mistle thrush were trapped. I also caught 32 Blackbirds and a Pied Wagtail.

Adult female Fieldfare above and a first winter Mistle thrush below.

Mistle Thrush.

The juvenile Whooper Swan is still at Thornton.
First winter male Pied Wagtail.

Redpoll Recovery

Just received a few recoveries from the BTO the other day, and among them was one for a Lesser Redpoll. Out of all the birds that Andy caught at Thornton Y473221 was retrapped at National Park de Groote Peel, in the Netherlands, only 508km and 48 days later. What a good result.

1000 UP.

Ringing at our Charnwood Forest site this weekend saw us ring our 1000th bird of the year there, and that honour went to one of the Redwing that come to roost there. Our previous best total was 724 that we only reached last year! Our totals for the last few weeks include 87 Chaffinch, 52 Blue Tit, 92 Goldcrest, 30 Redwing, 31 Blackbird and a late Blackcap.
We also had 4 redpoll with one being an adult male Common and this female Blackbird with a deformed bill. This time of the year the forest has a wonderful variety of fungi including a lot of Fly Agaric

and this little, bright yellow thing which I think is a Parrot Wax Cap. Beautiful.

Sorry Chris!

My first ringing at WCP since September was aimmed at clearing the rides and perhaps catching some very late Reed or Sedge Warblers. Well you don't know unless you try! Once the rides were clear and it was light enough to see,( I got there at 7am, and it was still dark!) I put Reed and Sedge Warbler on the tape lures and bingo, I caught two CETWA.

Both were males and one was an adult as I was able to see that it did not have tongue spots.

Ken Goodrich was with me at the time and he was able to confirm that while these two birds were in the net, there were two other males calling.

I also caught 6 LESRE out of a meagre total of 13 birds.

Common Redpoll at Thornton,at last.

One of three Common Redpoll caught with LESRE at Thornton today.

The COMRE had a much greyer colouration and the GC were much paler and not buff. Below I have included a LESRE for comparison.

The COMRE is on the left and the LESRE on the right. Note the buff tinge to the chest which contrasts with the white belly, whereas the COMRE has a white chest aswell as belly. Both these were first year birds. I also think that the head structure seems different. The LESRE seems more rounded.

At first I was concerned that perhaps I was looking at juv. LESRE, but I eventually got my eye in. I can see how it could be difficult with just one bird for comparison.

The bird below is very pale but it had a streaked rump and therefore is a COMRE and not an Arctic, so sorry Dave, but I shall keep trying!

My total for Redpoll at Thornton this autumn is now 131.

Goldcrest Tails.

Male Goldcrest

Pointed tail of first year bird and below the rounded tail of an adult. So many of the crests we do at this time of year are first year birds that it is nice to see an obvious adult.

Redpoll Envy!

An adult male Lesser Redpoll, one of 116 that I have caught at Thornton this Autumn.

Note the generally brown colour of the mantle and the buff tipped greater coverts.

A smart Common Redpoll, caught with two Lesser Redpoll by Nigel and Chris at Charnwood Lodge recently. The following photos show the more extensive white feathers in the mantle and the white rump. The greater coverts are also tipped white rather than buff as in Lesre.

The white extends from the mantle to the rump.

An obviously white rump.

The bird has a much paler appearance and none of the116 Lesser Redpoll ( Have I mentioned this before? I'm not bitter, I prefer LESRE actually, anything with the name Common, well it just sounds abit ordinary, apart from Rosefinch!!) that I have caught were any where near that pale.






There is hardly any streaking on the under tail coverts.

I had a catch of 33 Lesser Redpoll today. Out of the 116 I have caught this autumn only 14 have been adults.