Notes: The first Winter CES visit of the season. Lots of Blue Tits again, a little fewer than the 2023/24 winter visit 1. The main difference being just two re-traps as opposed to 11 for last season’s matching visit. Coal Tit numbers are notably down - 6 as opposed to 18. Great Tit numbers are also much reduced - 3 as opposed to 17. The food take up at this feeder is low compared to previous winters. It will be interesting to see if numbers pick up on future visits or if the birds just aren’t there. On the positive side two ring-able Chaffinch, we’ve netted one or two this year but have not been able ring them because they had “grotty foot” (papilloma infection). Looking back, we ringed between 1 and 89 in the 1970's, 24 and 137 in the 1980’s, 17 to 97 in the 1990’s, 55 to 330 in the 2000’s, 45 to 407 in the 2010s and in the 2020s, year totals are 2020-5, 2021-0, 2022-10, 2023-1, 2024-5 and so far this year (2025) we’ve ringed just the two of today’s date. Even allowing for the drop in ringing effort the numbers since 2020 are significantly lower.
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