25th January 2010 - A Quieter Day Than Normal

Stuart, Jake, Eddie and I had a rather quieter morning of ringing than is usual at Chesworth Farm with just 50 birds ringed of just seven species. The highlights were a couple of Reed Bunting and Redpoll and another continental female Blackbird.

The last bird caught was a very interestingly marked first year Blue Tit (below) that had a clear fault bar on the outer tail feathers and unusually on the primary coverts. Fault bars are the result of lack of food whilst in the feather growning stage in the nest and therefore creates a weakness in the feather. The central tail feathers have been replaced with adult ones, but with the amount of wear they must have been replaced very early on, possibly before the juvenile feathers had been fully grown.
Other sightings today included a huge flock of finches which involved at least 200 Siskin, 50+ Redpoll, 5 Yellowhammer and 2 Linnet.
Birds ringed:
Reed Bunting - 2
Redpoll - 2
Chaffinch - 6
Blue Tit - 30
Great Tit - 3
Greenfinch - 5
Blackbird - 2