22/11 Greenham Common Feeder

Location: Greenham Common Feeder
Session: 22-Oct-2015 07:30 to 11:30hrs
Weather: cold, calm, overcast, sunny periods later.
Present: JL, IW, RJC, JPM
Nets: 120’ two 40’ each side of feeders and 40’ in scrub by additional feeder up from 08:00 to 11:00hrs
Lure (feeders): niger (3 feeders), black sunflower hearts (2 feeders) peanut feeder.
Capture (New/Recapture) 110:

Blackbird 1/0	Blue Tit 15/6
Coal Tit 1/3	Dunnock 0/1
Goldfinch 55/5	Great Spotted Woodpecker 0/1
Great Tit 2/5	Greenfinch 8/0
Kestrel 1/0	Lesser Redpoll 3/0
Redwing 1/0	Siskin 2/0

Recaptures: 21

Blue Tit: 2y 170d from nest box PK21; 1km+ away across the heath. Coal Tit: 1y 271d, 1y 80d Dunnock: 5y 8d Goldfinch: a control (ringed elsewhere) Great Tit: 2y 249d All others recaptured  had been ringed 21days ago

Age Range: all first winter except:

Adults: Blue Tit 3, Coal Tit 3, Dunnock 1, Goldfinch 11, Great Tit 2, Greenfinch 3, Kestrel 1

Adult Male Kestrel (also a regular at the bird feeder!)

1st Winter Redwing; a long winged dark bird probably of the Icelandic race

Notes: First really cold session of the winter. While we were putting up the third net a Kestrel was captured but escaped before we could get to it; fortunately he persisted and was not so lucky in his attempts to escape before Ian got to him. The 1st full round was of 11, mostly Goldfinch but also Blue Tit, Coal Tit and Lesser Redpoll. The next round was a similar mix with in addition Dunnock, Great Spotted Woodpecker and Great Tit. Following this was a big capture of 36 that included a Blackbird. The next round of 20 included an unexpected Redwing and more of the same as did the next two rounds of 10. There was then a pause with just the wary flying around near the nets. Before we decided to take the nets down at 11:00hrs, a new wave of birds arrived to feed, resulting in a final  capture of 15. It will be interesting to see where the control Goldfinch came from, hopefully not too nearby. A very good morning followed by an excellent late Italian lunch at Bella Vita Thatcham with the family and a birthday girl, nice!

Sightings 31 Species: Very busy so probably missed a few species; best bird a Peregrine flew over east spotted by hawk-eye Weston..

Blackbird 6 Black-headed Gull 3 Blue Tit 20 Bullfinch 2 Canada Goose 3 Carrion Crow 7 Chaffinch 3 Coal Tit 5 Dunnock 2 Fieldfare 13 Goldcrest 1 Golden Plover 66 Goldfinch 70 Great Spotted Woodpecker 2 Great Tit 8 Greenfinch 20

Jackdaw 19 Jay 2 Kestrel 1 Lesser Redpoll 6 Magpie 3 Mute Swan 2 Peregrine 1 Redwing 17 Robin 6 Siskin 5 Starling 7 Stock Dove 2 Teal 4 Woodpigeon 50 Wren 1