21st January 2010 - Warnham Feeders, Copse and Reeds

Having not ringed much here this month I spent this morning at Warnham LNR with nets in the feeding station, copse and reedbed edge of the Millpond. I managed to catch 87 new birds of 16 species, although 19 species were caught in total.
The first bird caught was probably the best of the day being a beautiful adult female Kingfisher (above). Kingfishers are able to be sexed on the colour of the lower mandible, females being more than two-thirds orange and males more than two-thirds black. This was then closely followed by two Redwing in the copse.

After finally catching a Woodpigeon at Chesworth on Monday, today I caught two which were both adult males but interestingly there was a huge weight difference one being 554g and the other 658g.
The last bird of the morning was an adult male Goldcrest (above and below), that seemed to be in good condition considering the extreme weather that it has had to endure, having a normal weight of 5.2g and scores of 1 fat and 2 muscle.

Highlights from the retraps included a male Blackbird ringed on 9th June 2007 and three Great Spotted Woodpeckers which were all ringed in 2009 and were all in one net at once! My hands are still recovering from being drummed on!
Birds ringed:
Reed Bunting - 2
Robin - 2
Dunnock - 2
Blue Tit - 39
Redpoll - 1
Chaffinch - 9
Great Tit - 15
Goldfinch - 4
Wren - 1
Goldcrest - 1
Greenfinch - 3
Blackbird - 2
Redwing - 2
Song Thrush - 1
Kingfisher - 1
Woodpigeon - 2