Friday 15 December 2017

15/12 Snelsmore Common Feeder

Location: Snelsmore Common Feeder 
Session: 15-Dec-2017 0745 to 11:20hrs
Headlines: We took the last chance to ring in the first half of December as the weather has mainly stopped us making an earlier visit. Although not quite as cold as recently there was still a cold bite in the air. The recent cold weather has affected the bird population coming to all the feeders and less food is being taken. Until the cold weather hit feeders were all but empty on the every other day top-up trips. The weekly uptake of sunflower has dropped from about 20kg to 12kg (one sack). The total for this visit is at the lower end of the last eight years. Some good retraps though, six pulli from this year’s nest box broods is good for the December. They are all from boxes within a radius of about 500metres, one Blue Tit less than 10metres. We usually pick up one or two from the Winterbourne Holt boxes late in the session but not today, probably we finished before they reached the feeder. The last round included a Great Spotted Woodpecker that hacked at my finger with its beak when I was extracting from the net leaving me with many "pinprick" bleeds. It was another enjoyable session with some good data gathered, recaptures outnumber new birds by almost 2 to 1 a sign of good survival by the locals, possibly indicating that it is incomers that have caused the drop in numbers. I was glad to get home in the warm though after topping up the other feeders.
Weather: windy but sheltered, cold, bright
Present: JL, IW, DL
Nets: 12metres a 6M net each side of feeder up from 08:00 to 11:00hrs
Lure (feeder): fat balls, niger, black sunflower, peanuts
Capture (New/Recapture)
46(16/30) visit 3 of 10
56(35/21) matching 2016 visit 3 of 10 (06-Dec-2016)
Species
New
Rtp
1st CY
2ndCY+
BLUTI
8
16
20
4
COATI
2
10
8
4
GRETI
4
1
4
1
GRSWO

1

1
LOTTI

1
indeterminate
MARTI
1
1
2

ROBIN
1

1

Species
New
Rtp
1st CY
2ndCY+
BLUTI
14
11
20
5
CHAFF
1


1
COATI
9
1
9
1
GRETI
11
8
15
4
ROBIN

1

1

Totals for visit 03 of 10 for the last 8 winter periods
09/10
10/11
11/12
12/13
13/14
14/15
16/17
17/18
73
94
44
51
40
68
56
46

Recaptures: (30) all recent except:
Blue Tit: pulli from box CP03 211d, 2 from box CP08 218d, from box CP20 215d, from box CP21 218d, from box CP22 222d. Full Grown: 3y 39d, 1y 362d
Coal Tit: 352d, 341d
Great Spotted Woodpecker: 1y 349d
Great Tit: pulli from box CP27 218d
Long-tailed Tit: 299d
Sightings 22 Species: Ian’s list, not the best place to count as the vista is limited and we were quite busy and missed a few; I added the Siskin calling when we put the nets up; hope they find the niger soon.
Black-headed Gull (5)
Woodpigeon (5)
Great Spotted Woodpecker (2)
Jay (2)
Jackdaw (3)
Rook (6)
Carrion Crow (4)
Raven (1)
Goldcrest (1)
Blue Tit (25)
Great Tit (7)

Coal Tit (15)
Marsh Tit (2)
Long-tailed Tit (3)
Nuthatch (2)
Treecreeper (1)
Wren (1)
Blackbird (2)
Robin (3)
Dunnock (1)
Chaffinch (5)
Siskin (3)


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