October update

We've had some windy spells of late but despite that we've had a weekly outing to our Winter site during October. This site is used as a roost, primarily for Blackbird, Redwing , Chaffinch and sometimes Brambling as in previous years, there is also a feeding station that attracts the usual woodland species. Our total for the month of 300 birds (210 new) includes 10 Wren, 37 Goldcrest, 16 Coal Tit, 41 Blue Tit, 52 Great Tit, 19 Chaffinch, 8 Blackbird, 4 Song Thrush, 3 Redwing and another 4 Nuthatch which brings the site total to 27 our best total has been 32 during 2007. Our September totals reached 256 inc 11 Robins, 36 Blackcap, 28 Chiffchaff, 31 Goldcrest and a Marsh Tit.
A few recent recovery details received back from the BTO include a Willow Warbler ringed as a pullus on 5th June and retrapped 63 days later at Icklesham in Sussex 246km away on 7th August, a Goldfinch ringed on the 1st April found it's way to North Lincolnshire and was killed by a cat, distance of 107km (no jokes please!) and a Greenfinch which was ringed in August 2013 was found with an injury in June this year nr Atherstone in Warwickshire a distance of 24km.

Spotted Flycatchers.

 Two juvenile Spotted Flycatchers were caught at Thornton today.

 Fresh plumage and Greater Coverts tipped buff as are the tertials makes this a first year. An adult would have very worn plumage.

 

Summer sessions

Two late summer sessions at the water treatment site produced 13 Blackcap 7 Chiffchaff 9 Whitethroat and an assorted supporting cast including this young Lesser Whitethroat. The habitat gets better for post breeding foraging and there were still Whitethroat carrying food . Tantalizing glimpse of a probable Marsh Harrier flying through to the south and a calling Sandwich Tern overhead added to the excitement.

Woodpecker Day.

 Juvenile Green Woodpecker.

We also caught a juvenile Great Spotted Woodpecker. It was also great to catch 17 new Reed Warblers for the year, including 4 recently fledged, our first of the year.

Colour Ringing Success.

 Today 29 Common Tern were colour ringed at Watermead Country Park. This brings the years total to 34.

The nesting rafts have all been very successful. A massive thank you to Dale and Jenny for their fantastic help.

Common Tern Colour ringing begins.

 Today we started our Common Tern colour ringing project. A total of 4 chicks were colour ringed, but with more to follow in the coming weeks.

They looked rather smug with their new "Bling"!
We are using engraved colour rings, which are placed on the left leg, a metal on the right. They are Lime green ,with a black code. The code is U00 to U99. 
We are looking forward to plenty of future sightings of these pioneers!
We have several questions that we wish to answer from this research. Hopefully we will find out more about the migration routes of our WCP terns. Are there important stop over sites where our young terns linger on their long journey south? Will individual terns return next summer and will they use the same raft? Which water bodies locally will our terns use for feeding? How far might they travel in order to find food?
To report colour ringed birds go to the European colour ringing website at www.cr-birding.org This site is currently being updated ,but links to the various species can be found here.

Cute Kestrels.

 Four Kestrel pullus were rung at Thornton. They have again used the box we put up in an oak tree.

It is very rewarding when a box you have made and erected is deemed, Fit for Purpose!