Chew Valley Ringing

An 'away day' from the ringing station today to Elm Farm, Burnett. 5 Yellowhammer ringed from around 35 birds present

This Lesser Emperor in the nets during CES 10 was rather unexpected! Fortunately it was successfully extracted and flew off.

This re-trapped Lesser Whitethroat was the avian highlight of CES 10

@AndrewBoyack Hi Andrew, thank you for your comment. If you look closely you can see that the ring is on the birds right leg and that the left leg is in front of the ring in the image, giving the appearance that the ring is not fully closed.

@CVRSNews I’m not a ringer so a genuine question - is that ring not a little loose?

First Willow Warbler of the Autumn season. Ringed as a juvenile during CES this morning.

First kingfisher of the year. Ringed as a juvenile male this morning during CES.

@SiMackie @CVLbirding Always difficult to get the whole number to be able to report. The numbers visible are the same as a single bird we have records for from Feb 2020, Jan & Feb 21 - but of course making this link can only be an assumption.

@cvlbirding @CVRSNews Finnish Black-headed gull at Herriots this afternoon...

Chiffchaff number 4 of the season. This bird from today has the same characteristics as those three individuals ringed here on the 5th, 6th and 7th of November.

tristis-type Chiff ringed at CVRS on 07 November 2021. Remarkably this was the third presumed Siberian Chiffchaff ringed at CVRS in 3 days.

Chiffs have been interesting over the weekend period, with 3 tristis-types ringed (more on this perhaps when I have photos) and today the recapture of a collybita-type that was ringed here last Nov and not seen again until today.

@Wildwood_photos you may be interested in this paper... researchgate.net/publication/23… eye colour is an indication of age.

Male bearded tit from Stratford hide, chew valley lake just now. 2-3 individuals at the back of the hide. Black eyed males are significantly different from the pale eyed “normal” type

Looks right I reckon for subspecies tristis - the Siberian Chiffchaff. Ringed this morning at CVRS. Nice to see these eastern birds making it to the west of England.

4 Lesser Redpoll ringed this morning - annual totals rarely exceed single figures here.

Reed Warbler was interesting in what was a slow day of ringing today. Not too unusual as an October bird here, as we've had around 60 individuals over the years, and we've even had one in January.

6 Bearded Tit ringed this morning, giving a total of 11 individuals so far this year - the third highest year total on CVRS records. 22 were ringed in 2017, 35 in 1965.

@Wildwood_photos As with a lot of the ringing of small birds, only a small proportion of those ringed get recaptured by other ringers or ring numbers are read 'in the field'. The most recent Bearded Tit movement we have is a bird found in Kent during the autumn of 2017, c2yrs after we ringed it.

@CVRSNews What about the individuals from a couple of years back with entirely black eyes. Did you get an info on those at all?

4 Bearded Tit ringed this morning at CVRS - 2 male and 2 female. Dorset, Hampshire, Sussex, Kent and Suffolk are the counties from which we have records of Bearded Tit either moving to or from Chew Valley Lake.

Not too many Blackcap are ringed 'in the nest' at CVRS. This map shows the recovery locations of 2 such birds. The Portland bird recaptured in April, just under 2 yrs after ringing - presumably migration. The Cricklade bird was recaptured c3 months after ringing - juv dispersal.

Moving into Bearded Tit season at CVRS, with 1 male ringed today (first of the year). Up to 2015 they were sporadic here with occasional 'good' years and not much in-between. Since then they are almost annual (missing from 2016 & 18) but numbers do fluctuate somewhat.

A slow morning of ringing was livened up by a Reed Warbler and a Sedge Warbler. A quick look at our data shows that from 2000, October Reed Warbler are just about annual here though not reaching double figures in any year. Sedge Warbler are somewhat less than annual.