21/01 Bagnor Feeder

Location: Bagnor Feeder
Session: 21-Jan-2016 08:15 to 11:20hrs
Headlines: The first reasonable and convenient weather for me for 11 days. Arrived late as I miss-timed the morning rush hour traffic on the bypass; just a few minutes later is the difference between a relatively easy run through and a jam up the hill not helped by several lorries in convoy. Manage to get the nets up by 08:30hrs so not to bad. A steady capture each net round until about 10:30hrs then it stopped completely for the next two rounds, Reg thought there might be a predator about as several birds were alarming but if there was we didn’t see it. A chat with the gamekeeper passed the time until 11:00hrs when we took the nets down, after extracting four long-tailed tits, two blue tits and a great tit. A good number of the captures were adults that arrived mid-session. Also, several pulli recaptured from nearby Mount Hill and a couple from further up the road at Winterbourne Holt. Some of these were from 2013 and had not been recaptured since ringing.
What is the correct spelling of Nyger or is it Niger; Mole Valley sacks use the former whereas other suppliers use the latter. Google is ambiguous on the subject.
Weather: Overcast, Cloudy, freezing at first, a little warmer later.
Present: JL, RGS
Nets: 12 metres: two rides, one 6m nets each side of feeders up from 08:35hrs to 11:00hrs
Lure (Feeders): Peanut, Black Sunflower, Nyger
Capture (New/Recapture) 42 (21/21):

Blue Tit 9/13	Coal Tit 2/0
Goldfinch 2/0	Great Tit 7/5
Long-tailed Tit 1/32

Recaptures: 21 unless otherwise stated nest boxes captures are from Mount Hill
Blue Tit 2y 337d, 2y 235d (box B03), 2y 231d (box C03), 2y 0d, 1y 245d (box B03), 1y 49d, 245dx2 (box AMT1), 243d Winterbourne Holt box WH19), 241dx 2 (boxes B01 & D01)
Great Tit 1y 76d, 1y 36d, 345d (box B07), 243d (Winterbourne Holt box WH22)All others less than 100 days
Age Range: all 1st winter except:
Adults Blue Tit 10, Goldfinch 1, Great Tit 5
Indeterminate Long-tailed Tit 4

Sightings 20 Species: Not much of a count today; the head-lister was absent. Two more little egrets on the water meadow near Pitkins Farm.

Blackbird 2 Blue Tit 30 Buzzard 1 Carrion Crow Chaffinch Coal Tit 4 Fieldfare 2 Goldfinch 2 Great Spotted Woodpecker 2 Great Tit 15 Jay 2

Little Egret 1 Long-tailed Tit 4 Nuthatch 2 Pheasant Robin 1 Rook Siskin 50 Song Thrush 1 Wren 1