Each month throughout the year a band of merry men visit a nearby site to run a moth trapping and bird ringing demonstration. This has been taking place for the past nine or ten years. The ringing takes place each month of the year, while the moth trapping concentrates on the period March to October inclusive. The following is the account of the March session and has been copied direct from the Beeston Wildlife Group blogsite.
Moth trapping
Moth trapping
For the moths, there were a total of six species and 47 individuals. Of most interest was the Yellow horned moth. This was only the second record for the site, the first being in the corresponding session in 2011. Other species included an array of the drabs along with the not unexpected species, for the time of year, with a religious connotation.
Totals
Species
|
Total
|
Common Quaker
|
15
|
Small Quaker
|
12
|
Hebrew character
|
11
|
Lead-coloured drab
|
9
|
Clouded drab
|
3
|
Yellow horned
|
1
|
Species: 6
|
47 individuals
|
 |
| Hebrew character (c John Beeston) |
 |
| Yellow horned (c John Beeston) |
Bird ringing
The March session was conducted on a chilly, cloudy but still morning. After the bright and breezy conditions in Jan and Feb, we were thankful that nets would be less visible on this session. The day started in spectacular style with a kingfisher seen in John's Copse that conveniently flew straight into the net we had set the other side of the pond where we provide seed bait for finches. This was the 7th Kingfisher to be ringed at Beeston and the first since August 2010. Two harsh winters will have had an adverse effect on this species with access to water limited in the big freeze.
 |
| Kingfisher (c John Beeston) |
A good start to a day that kept getting better!
The garden was the star area today with finches being particularly evident all around the place, small charms of very noisy Goldfinch, Chaffinch and Greenfinch seemed to be in every tree. A catch of 14 Goldfinches is the second highest we have had here, which bought the total ringed at Beeston to 99. Three of the previously ringed Goldfinches have moved considerable distances from Beeston, a ringer in Selby, N Yorkshire retrapped one, a cat near Aylesbury killed a second and ringers from Oxford University at Witham Woods caught the third. Just shows that the birds in your garden can move around the country quite freely.
The capture of a Lesser Redpoll was a major surprise and was a new species for many folk to see close up. This was the third for Beeston as two were ringed in December 2003, so it has been a while since we managed to ring one. These attractive small finches are currently finding that Nyger feeders are a source of food and are readily coming to gardens much more readily than 3 or 4 years ago.
House Sparrows are always an enigma for ringers; they seem to have an innate ability to know if anyone has a net set, and will studiously avoid the area. If they are caught once, they wise-up and recaptures are infrequent compared to birds like Dunnocks or Blue Tits. Six new birds and a retrap was the highest catch for some time. Six of the seven birds were males, probably caught whilst they were squabbling about territories and females as spring approaches. Indeed, the capture of a female Robin that had a brood patch (area of feathers lost on the belly to allow warm skin to incubate eggs) means that fledged young may only be 2-3 weeks away!
The garden was the star area today with finches being particularly evident all around the place, small charms of very noisy Goldfinch, Chaffinch and Greenfinch seemed to be in every tree. A catch of 14 Goldfinches is the second highest we have had here, which bought the total ringed at Beeston to 99. Three of the previously ringed Goldfinches have moved considerable distances from Beeston, a ringer in Selby, N Yorkshire retrapped one, a cat near Aylesbury killed a second and ringers from Oxford University at Witham Woods caught the third. Just shows that the birds in your garden can move around the country quite freely.
The capture of a Lesser Redpoll was a major surprise and was a new species for many folk to see close up. This was the third for Beeston as two were ringed in December 2003, so it has been a while since we managed to ring one. These attractive small finches are currently finding that Nyger feeders are a source of food and are readily coming to gardens much more readily than 3 or 4 years ago.
House Sparrows are always an enigma for ringers; they seem to have an innate ability to know if anyone has a net set, and will studiously avoid the area. If they are caught once, they wise-up and recaptures are infrequent compared to birds like Dunnocks or Blue Tits. Six new birds and a retrap was the highest catch for some time. Six of the seven birds were males, probably caught whilst they were squabbling about territories and females as spring approaches. Indeed, the capture of a female Robin that had a brood patch (area of feathers lost on the belly to allow warm skin to incubate eggs) means that fledged young may only be 2-3 weeks away!
Totals
Species
|
New
|
Retrap
|
Totals
|
Goldfinch
|
14
|
0
|
14
|
Chaffinch
|
10
|
4
|
14
|
Greenfinch
|
9
|
2
|
11
|
House sparrow
|
6
|
1
|
7
|
Blue tit
|
1
|
4
|
5
|
Blackbird
|
1
|
1
|
2
|
Kingfisher
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
Lesser redpoll
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
Goldcrest
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
Dunnock
|
0
|
4
|
4
|
Great tit
|
0
|
3
|
3
|
Long-tailed tit
|
0
|
3
|
3
|
Robin
|
0
|
2
|
2
|
Wren
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
Totals:
|
44
|
25
|
69
|
 |
| Blackbird (c John Beeston) |
Recapture informationBy springtime, we see a rise in the numbers of recaptures compares to what we see in summer and autumn, this because we manage to catch and ring most of the territorial birds around Cos Lodge. Of the 25 retraps this month 17 were of under one years duration, including the Long Tailed Tits and Greenfinches.
The oldest re-trapped bird of this session was a Wren originally ringed in November 2008, this has extended its reign as the longest lived bird of this species at Beeston. Of the four retrap chaffinches, two were from the same day as the Wren back in November 08. Of the Blue and Great tits; we retrapped Blue tits from 2009 (Sept), 2010 (Feb and July)and Great Tits from 2009 (Nov). A Robin from September 2009 and a Dunnock from december 2012 complete the retraps of over one years duration.
The oldest re-trapped bird of this session was a Wren originally ringed in November 2008, this has extended its reign as the longest lived bird of this species at Beeston. Of the four retrap chaffinches, two were from the same day as the Wren back in November 08. Of the Blue and Great tits; we retrapped Blue tits from 2009 (Sept), 2010 (Feb and July)and Great Tits from 2009 (Nov). A Robin from September 2009 and a Dunnock from december 2012 complete the retraps of over one years duration.
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