09/01 Greenham Common

Location: Greenham Common Estovers Feeder visit 05 of 10
Session: 09-Jan-2018, 07:30 to 11:15hrs

Headlines: Not a nice day, damp and cold. Some good birds though, mostly recaptures. Three quite old Great Tits and a 6 year plus Great Spotted Woodpecker, ringed 2011, and a regular at the feeder. As for most visits the finches waited for us to leave before coming to the feeder. I put the nets up in the dark hoping to capture some of the 15 Chaffinch I saw there yesterday but no show today. No new Blue or Great Tits is unusual and shows that there is little movement at this time of year and that mostly local birds are using the feeder. Hopefully the Lesser Redpoll is the first of many in the second half of the winter. Last winter’s visit 5 was a very low total. At the beginning of last winter (2016/17) we moved the feeder from the grass in the car park to a clearing made in the scrub nearby and since the number of birds attending is perceived as being considerably less  A look at the winter totals below indicates that numbers started dropping away before then; at least it does for visit 5. Today's entry of data on the new (DemOn) system was seamless, I miss some of the set reports though and not being able to run my SQL routines.

Weather: cold, dank, misty, calm
Present: JL, IW
Nets: 34metres in three rides of 10M, 12M, 12M up from 08:00 to 11:00hrs
Lure (feeders): niger, niger, black sunflower, peanuts, black sunflower
Capture (New/Recapture)

29(06/23) visit 05 of 10

Species New Rtp 1stCY 2ndCY+ BLABI 1 1 BLUTI 10 10 COATI 1 2 2 1 GOLDC 1 1 GOLDF 1 1 2 GRSWO 1 1 GRETI 7 4 3 GREFI 2 1 1 LESRE 1 1 ROBIN 1 1

11(08/03) 2017 visit 05 (10-Jan-2017)

Species New Rtp 1stCY 2ndCY+ BLUTI 2 2 1 3 COATI 1 1 GRETI 2 1 1 2 GRSWO 1 1 REDWI 1 1 ROBIN 1 1

Totals for visit 05 of 10 for the last 8 winter periods

2010/11	2011/12	2012/13	2013/14	2014/15	2015/16	2016/17	2017/18
113	61	46	33	59	23	11	29

Captures: (23) all recent except:
Blackbird       1y 29d
Blue Tit          221d from Thatcham Marsh and from Bowdown 24d and a pulli 242d
Coal Tit          231d from Western Enclosure
Goldfinch      131d from the Western Enclosure
Great Tit         4y 61d, 3y 87d, 3y 84d
Great Spotted Woodpecker 6y 176d

Sightings 28 Species: It was difficult to observe in the murk and several overflying gulls and others could not be identified, being just ghostly shapes. Notable was the number of Bullfinch in the car park scrub, 12 is probably on the low side.