12/11 Snelsmore Common Feeder

Location: Snelsmore Common Feeder
Session: 12-Nov-2017 07:30 to 11:15hrs

Headlines: We had a very busy ringing session today; in particular we had a good capture of Blue Tits. Having now completed visits 1 of 10 at all three feeders it is very apparent how poor the 2016 breeding season was and the subsequent 2016/17 winter. The Snelsmore visit emphasises this even allowing for differences in weather conditions etc between winters. The number of 1st calendar years birds is well up on last year’s visit. Food is going fast this year. We have used ten 12.6kg bags of sunflower seed already, whereas last winter 10 bags lasted well into the New Year. A comparison of the last five years of totals shows what a good session we had, interestingly winter 13/14 was not such a good one either. It will be interesting, as the winter progresses, top see if the high number of captures continues.

Weather: Overcast, few spots of rain early, windy and cold
Present: JL, IW, JHW, DL
Nets: 12metres, one 6m net each side of feeders up from 08:00 to 11:00hrs
Lure (feeders): Fat balls, black sunflower, peanuts
Capture (New/Recapture)

108(81/27) visit 1 of 10)	9(07/02) matching visit 1 of 10 (10-Nov-2016
Species New Rtp 1stCY 2ndCY+ BLUTI 42 10 46 6 COATI 19 9 21 7 GRETI 14 5 12 7 LOTTI 2 1 MARTI 1 2 3 NUTHA 1 1 ROBIN 1 1 TREEC 1 1	Species New Rtp 1stCY 2ndCY+ BLUTI 3 1 1 3 COATI 1 1 GRETI 3 2 1 NUTHA 1 1 Totals for visit 01 for the last five winters 13/14 14/15 15/16 16/17 17/18 15 87 85 9 108

Recaptures: (27)
Blue Tit   249d, 189d-pulli box CP22, 185d-two pulli box CP08, 182d-pulli boxCP15, 178d-pulli box CP30
Coal Tit   1y 242d, 341d, 319d, 308d
Great Tit 189d-pulli box CP28, 185d-pulli box CP27

Sightings 25 Species: Ian’s list, quite a short list as we were all very busy, best bird a calling Brambling