Another Mealy

I made the effort to get up to Billinge at first light this morning and set 3 nets but my optimism didn't look like it was going to be rewarded with only 7 birds being caught in the first couple of hours. I had hoped some Redpolls would be on the move but there was nothing moving overhead and not a great deal moving through the bushes either. Things hadn't improved much by 09:30 so I started to think about packing up but then 3 Redpolls went north and rekindled my optimism. Better still the next check of the nets produced a nice Mealy Redpoll so any thought of packing up was put firmly on hold.

Mealy Redpoll 06/04/17

Mealy Redpoll 06/04/17

Mealy Redpoll 06/04/17

The remainder of the morning saw further improvement with a little trickle of Redpolls heading north and a better catching rate. While I didn't catch any more Mealies a total of 7 Lesser Redpolls were caught including one that had been ringed elsewhere. With a bit of luck I should get confirmation of where this bird was ringed back from the BTO tomorrow, although I do have good reason to believe it was originally ringed in East Sussex.

The control Lesser Redpoll was a cracking male. Details of where it was ringed will be posted in due course.

Chiffchaff numbers had increased since my last visit and all 5 that were caught were retraps from previous years (1 from 2015 and 4 from 2016). One of them had a cracking pollen horn. This bird must have spent a lot of time with its face in flowers, feeding on insects and probably drinking nectar, whilst fattening up for the return journey.

JTA492 Chiffchaff had the best pollen horn I have seen so far this spring

JTA492 Chiffchaff

The final tally of 18 new birds and 19 retraps was well worth the effort and made up for the slow start. Ringing totals (retraps or controls in brackets) were: Woodpigeon 1; Blue Tit 2; Great Tit 1 (3); Coal Tit (1); Long-tailed Tit (3); Chiffchaff (5); Willow Warbler 2 (1); Robin (2); Chaffinch 2 (2); Lesser Redpoll 6 (1); Mealy Redpoll 1; Goldfinch 3; Yellowhammer (1).

07/04/16 update
The recovery report for the control Lesser Redpoll arrived today as predicted and it was originally ringed as a first-year at Icklesham in East Sussex in October 2011. This makes it just under 6 years old which is a good age for a Lesser Redpoll. The current longevity record in the BTO online report for 2015 is not much older at just over 6 years between time of ringing and recovery and that bird would have been around six and a half when recaptured. Full details and a recovery map will be posted in due course.