05/01 Greenham Common Feeder

Location: Greenham Common Feeder

Session: 05-Jan-2016 07:45 to 11:30hrs

Weather: Foggy/murky early, late in the session clearing to hazy sunshine  and “warm”

Headlines: The first session of the year on the first reasonable convenient day for me. The feeders since the start of 2016 have been very slow to empty so it was no surprise that few birds were at the feeder. The goldfinch and lesser redpoll flocks in particular have dropped down to just a few of each. The first birds were not captured until 08:50hrs when a new robin, two lesser redpoll and a recaptured goldfinch and blue tit were processed. Next a coal tit and a recaptured great tit followed by six blue tits, a goldfinch and a great tit. Another coal tit a recaptured lesser redpoll and a marsh tit came next. Then it slowed until a lone great tit was extracted from the net at 10:30hrs. A retrap dunnock and another great tit were the last birds captured, the last 15 minutes had no captures so the nets came down quickly.

One of the sunflower feeders has been emptying its content on to the ground over the last two visits, not sure why it should suddenly have started doing this perhaps crows? We reduced the gap where the seed spreads onto the tray in the hope it will stop.
It is disappointing that all the birds that were coming to the feeder prior to Christmas have disappeared, hopefully they will return. The redpolls we captured today were all males in bright breeding plumage, quite advanced for the time of year so possibly many have already begun the return to breeding grounds or to JPM's better offer!

Present: JL, IW, RJC, RGS

Nets: 24M’, a 12M net in front of the grass feeders and another to the scrub feeder up from 08:00 to 11:00hrs.

Lure (feeders): niger x 4, black sunflower x 2, Peanuts

Capture (New/Recapture): 23 (17/6)

Blue Tit 5/2	Coal Tit 2/0
Dunnock 0/1	Goldfinch 2/1
Great Tit 3/1	Lesser Redpoll 3/1
Marsh Tit 1/0	Robin 1/0

Recaptures: 6, all recent except for: Dunnock 2y 49d

Age Range: all first winter except adult Coal Tit 1, Dunnock 1, Lesser Redpoll 1

Sightings 25 Species: not much to see until the fog cleared

Blackbird 7 Blue Tit 12 Carrion Crow 2 Chaffinch 5 Coal Tit 4 Dunnock 2 Goldcrest 1 Goldfinch 10 Great Spotted Woodpecker 2 Great Tit 10 Green Woodpecker 1 Greenfinch 1 Jackdaw 2

Jay 1 Kestrel 1 Lesser Redpoll 5 Magpie 6 Marsh Tit 2 Mute Swan 4 Pied Wagtail 1 Robin 3 Siskin 1 Song Thrush 2 Woodpigeon 10 Wren 2