01/11 Bagnor Feeder

Location: Bagnor Feeder Visit 01 of 10
Session: 01-Nov-2017 07:35 to 11:45hrs

Headlines: The first winter visit to the Bagnor Feeder. A look at 2016/17 winter equivalent shows how poor the preceding (2016) breeding season was. 1st Calendar Year Blue Tit and Great Tit were very low compared to today’s capture which seems to indicate a very good survival for the 2017 breeding season; early days though. The chart for the last five years shows it can vary; weather etc can depress the catch. The pulli from WH (Winterbourne Holt) boxes shows birds travel some way to food; both species being mostly sedentary. The other boxes A and B prefix boxes are on Mount Hill just up the valley. A 1st winter male Brambling was an unexpected surprise, we had one here on the first visit in 2011. It was a busy and enjoyable session, sometimes painful. Tits are aggressive for their size and while they rarely break the skin the side of one of my fingers is sore from being pecked; never mind the Great Spotted Woodpecker that hacked at the back of my hand. A few more sessions at the feeders will no doubt harden hands off after a summer mostly ringing soft billed warblers.

Weather: Bright, sunny, calm, mild, slight breeze later.
Present: JL, IW, DL
Nets: 12metres two 6M nets one each side of feeder up from 08:00 to 11:00hrs.
Lure (Feeders): Peanut, Black Sunflower, Fat Balls
Capture (New/Recapture)

70(60/10) visit 01 of 10 Winter 17/18	16(13/03) visit 01 of 10 Winter 16/17
Species New Rtp 1stCY 2ndCY+ BLUTI 37 6 38 5 BRAMB 1 1 COATI 2 2 DUNNO 1 1 GRETI 14 4 17 1 GRSWO 2 2 LOTTI 1 indeterminate MARTI 1 1 NUTHA 1 1	Species New Rtp 1stCY 2ndCY+ BLUTI 6 1 4 3 GRETI 5 4 1 GRSWO 1 1 NUTHA 1 1 1 1 ROBIN 1 1 Totals for visit 01 for the last five years 13/14 14/15 15/16 16/17 17/18 19 34 65 16 70

Recaptures: (10)
Blue Tit     Pulli: Box WH28 177d, Box WH20 174d, Box B02 176d, Box B08 170d
                   Adults: 2y 298d, 341d
Great Tit    Pulli: Box A03 174d (3 individuals from same brood), Box WH09 171d

First winter male Brambling

Sightings 25 Species: Probably missed a few birds as quite busy late in the session; 26 birds capture in the last net round. The Brambling was the best bird, just a lone individual that turned up in the net and is the first I have seen this year.  There are usually a few around in the first winter period but not this year, very scarce. No decent size flocks of Siskin and Redpolls yet. Some of the these were with a small group of Goldfinches feeding in some Alder trees.