An interesting December: despite the weather we managed to get in as many full sessions (17) as we did in December 2022. The total numbers were relatively similar but the make up was very different.
This year we had two fewer species than last year but three of the species in 2022 were Buzzard, Barn Owl and Tawny Owl, when I ringed four of the former and one each of the latter two species at the RSPCA Oak & Furrows Recovery Centre. Anyway, in our catch this year, missing last year, are Bullfinch, Linnet, Meadow Pipit, Sparrowhawk and Tree Sparrow. The addition of Tree Sparrow this year is down to Jonny taking over monitoring a number of sites containing their nesting colonies and taking on ringing around these sites. Missing from our catch this year, as well as the three rehab species, were Green Woodpecker, House Sparrow, Jay, Pied Wagtail and Starling.
As well as this, the balance of catches is quite astonishing. In the ascendant in December 2023 are:
- Blue Tit: 122 ringed in 2023 vs 80 in 2022, whereas the numbers retrapped were very similar (81 vs 85).
- Great Tit: 106 processed vs 58 processed, with 56 ringed in 2023 – nearly the same as the total processed in 2022.
- Lesser Redpoll: 20 ringed vs 2.
- Redwing: 129 processed vs 64 (funnily enough, Jonny and I had coffee and a chat on Friday and were actually moaning about how few Redwing we were currently catching!)
In the descendant in December 2023 are:
- Blackbird: 28 processed in 2022 vs 17 this December
- Goldfinch: 40 vs 17
- Long-tailed Tit: 32 vs 17, with the key difference being only 7 ringed this year vs 19 in 2022.
- Robin: 22 ringed last December, just 11 this.
- Wren: 17 ringed last December, only 2 this.
I would love to know the reasons behind these changes. The only one that I have any knowledge about is the Goldfinch numbers: it was too windy to open the nets in my garden this December, which contributed 11 Goldfinch to the total last December and none this month.
Ringing In The Braydon Forest & Beyond 