01/11 Greenham Common Estovers Feeder (616)

Location: Greenham Common Estovers Feeder (616)

Session: 01-Nov-2015 07:30 to 11:15hrs

Weather: Foggy, dank, calm, cool, brightening later but not clearing
Present: JL, DL, IW, JHW, JPM, RGS
Nets: two 60’ nets, one each side of the feeders up from 07:45 to 11:00hrs
Lure (feeder): 3x niger feeders, 2x black sunflower feeders, 1x peanut feeder.
Capture (New/Recapture) 114:

Blackbird 1/0	Blue Tit 21/0
Brambling 1/0	Bullfinch 1/0
Chaffinch 1/0	Coal Tit 4/1
Goldfinch 49/1	Great Spotted Woodpecker 1/0
Great Tit 14/0	Greenfinch 17/0
Robin 1/0	Siskin 1/0

Recaptures: 2  a Coal Tit 1y 59d and Goldfinch 39d; both ringed at the Western Enclosure
Age Range: all 1st winter except:

Adults: Blue Tit 2, Coal Tit 1, Goldfinch 2, Great Tit 3, Greenfinch 2, Siskin 1

1st Winter Female Brambling

Notes: The first of a minimum ten winter session. We decided not to put the nets up in the bushes as we were expecting to capture good numbers. Instead of the usual L shaped 60’+40’ we erected a 60’ net each side and parallel to the feeders. Each feeder was suspended on bungees to drop the feeders about 500mm lower than normal. We began to capture while we were erecting the second net; three coal tits and a great and blue tit were extracted and processed. The next round of two blue tits, a greenfinch and a great tit had an unexpected surprise of the first brambling of the autumn. Then followed a big capture of 22 consisted of tits, greenfinch but mainly goldfinch. Next 14 were capture of similar make up. Another capture of 14 followed and included a great spotted woodpecker. More captures followed (still mostly goldfinch) of 11, 12 (including a siskin), 4, 9 (including a long winged probably continental blackbird), 5, 14, 7 and 1. It was noticeable that after about 09:15hrs no tits were captured until the penultimate round when two great tits and a blue tit were ringed. An enjoyable busy morning and a promising start to the season.

Sightings 28 Species: Not much time for counting so probably missed a few species.

Blackbird 4 Blue Tit 21+ Brambling 1 Bullfinch 1 Canada Goose 32 Carrion Crow 4 Chaffinch 4 Coal Tit 5 Dunnock 1 Goldcrest 3 Goldfinch 60+ Great Spotted Woodpecker 2 Great Tit 20+ Green Woodpecker 1

Greenfinch 20+ Jackdaw 7 Jay 1 Lesser Redpoll 2+ Magpie 3 Nuthatch 2 Pheasant 1 Pied Wagtail 3 Redwing 3 Robin 5 Siskin 2 Song Thrush 1 Woodpigeon 10 Wren 2