06/01 Bagnor Feeder

Location: Bagnor Feeder

Session: 06-Jan-2016 07:50 to 11:25hrs

Headlines: Not foggy despite the forecast. Didn’t get the nets up as quickly as possible; a net that I had not used for a while was a bit tangled. Not many birds waiting for me to go anyway. The first round just three: two coal tits and a goldfinch. A nuthatch and three blue tits and another coal tit followed; seems to be a plenty of coal tits about even here a few hundred metres from the nearest woodland. The next round was of three blue tit and three great tits. The latter had been singing along the field borders from very early and had now decided to feed. Next the only substantial round of the day: nine all blue tits plus a great tit. The next round had a chaffinch with a healed broken leg; released un-ringed. A blank visit next followed by four blue tits when we took the nets down.

Weather: Overcast, occasionally brightening up, one mid-session period of very low cloud and a few spots of rain before the cloud lifted and it got colder.

Present: JL, IW
Nets: 12M one 6M net each side of feeder up from 08:15 to 11:00hrs
Lure (feeder): peanuts, black sunflower, niger
Capture (New/Recapture) 24 (12/12):

Blue Tit 9/6	Coal Tit 0/3
Goldfinch 1/0	Great Tit 2/2
Nuthatch 0/1

Recaptures: 12
Blue Tit 2y 322d, 2y 293d, 1y 363d, 1y 236d (from Mount Hill box C04), 230d (from Mount Hill Box B08)
Great Tit 2y 220d (from Mount Hill Box C06), 230d (from Mount Hill Box B07)
Others recent
Age Range: all 1st winter except adult: Blue Tit 5, Great Tit 2

Sightings 34 Species: Quite a lot of activity for a change with flocks of winter thrushes flying about and a substantial flock of siskin flew in mid-session. In the distance along the Kennet valley, to far away to record, we could see a considerable movement of gulls west.

Blackbird 5 Blue Tit 15 Buzzard 2 Carrion Crow 4 Chaffinch 5 Coal Tit 3 Dunnock 1 Fieldfare 38 Goldfinch 3 Great Spotted Woodpecker 3 Great Tit 8 Green Woodpecker 1 Grey Heron 1 Jackdaw 5 Jay 2 Lesser Black-backed Gull 13 Little Egret 1

Long-tailed Tit 5 Magpie 2 Mallard 3 Mistle Thrush 1 Moorhen 3 Nuthatch 2 Pheasant 3 Red Kite 1 Red-legged Partridge 1 Redwing 10 Reed Bunting 1 Robin 5 Rook 74 Siskin 73 Song Thrush 3 Wren 4 Yellowhammer 1