New Year Ringing

...and so it is, instead of spending the day out clocking up a list of species for the new year I decided I would go ringing instead.....and it was well worth it....

Looking back to the 'old' days of ringing at an orchard near Northiam…..it was surrounded by fields and no other orchards....though im guessing if you went back a few years there was probably several orchards around.....

Now im in the heart of orchards....and this is part of the problem of not catching many birds, in the old days they were 'trapped' at the orchard so spent most of their time around.....now, here near Brenchley, they have the roaming of many acres of orchards as far as I can see in any direction....

On top of this...frosts....a complete lack of....so far this winter...2018/2019....we have had 3 frosts...pretty poor....now hopefully some hard frosts and very cold weather will appear....which leads to the next problem.....the ringing is usually better before January round this way....

Anyway...what turned up today...

Ive posted Redwing before....but this one is pretty special and the reason why ringing is done....its hard to come across a bird that was ringed elsewhere....but this one was the bird that proves the point...it was ringed in Holland....

Redwing

Every year I go with the usual feeding station....which is usually pretty poor, though I don't know why....theres plenty of hedgerow for birds to move along, theres plenty of evergreens for roosting, which Fieldfares and Redwings indeed roost in....I would have thought it would provide a great refuge for a colony of Greenfinches....but none are around...and in fact, very few finches ever come to the area, occasional Goldfinch....but other than that....

So I have moved the feeding station...again....to an area that was frequented by caravans to house the apple pickers though the vans have now been moved on....so its a good little area surrounded by a bit of scrub and some buildings....

Today a number of Tits turned up....Blue, Great....and a couple of these smaller species....Coal Tit...

Coal Tit

Its always an event getting a big blobby grey thing in the net...a Woodpigeon....and many a time they lumber themselves out of it and fly away before they can be taken and bagged for ringing...today was a good day...

Woodpigeon

Woodpigeon

A Buzzard called and a couple circled for a short while.....and a Grey Heron flew over the garden....

So the year list will have to wait for improvement till later in the week...