Ringing update ring-MUS project!

I haven't updated anything about bird ringing lately but this doesn't mean I haven't ringed any birds recently ofcourse! I had three ringing sessions this January, with pretty good results, despite the mild weather. In total I caught 49 birds, of which 36 were new and 13 were recaptures. This is not bad considering I'm catching with just either one 9 metre or one 6 metre net. I broke my daily record last week, with 20 birds caught on one day!

Below you can find the numbers along with some nice pictures (of at least one ringing tick for me!)

18th of January
Time: 8:30 - 13:30
Net: 9 metre

Blackbird (Merel) 1 -
Blue Tit (Pimpelmees) 4 - 2
Great Tit (Koolmees) - 2
Greenfinch (Groenling) 2 -
House Sparrow (Huismus) 7 -

Total 14 - 4 (18)


24th of January
Time: 8:30 - 14:30
Net: 9 metre

Blackbird (Merel) 2 -
Blue Tit (Pimpelmees) 7 - 6
Dunnock (Heggenmus) - 1
House Sparrow (Huismus) 3 -
Wood Pigeon (Houtduif) 1 -


Total 13 - 7 (20)

31st of January
Time: 8:30 - 14:30
Net: 6 metre

Blackbird (Merel) 4 - 1
Blue Tit (Pimpelmees) 1 - 1
Chaffinch (Vink) 1 -
Great Tit (Koolmees) 2 -
Greenfinch (Groenling) 1 -

Total 9 - 2 (11)

The first colourringed House Sparrow of 2012 (18-1)

Greenfinch, >1cy female (18-1)
Weird colouration on the P1, compared to the other primaries (grey vs. yellow). Maybe a lack of pigmentation?

Greenfinch, 2cy female (18-1)

Note the overall brown, especially the GC's and PC's

Greenfinch, 2cy male (31-1)

edit: I just looked at the pictures again, and this if ofcourse not a >2cy bird! Note the moult limit in the tertails and it looks like P1 to P5 are retained juvenile feathers, and so are the secondaries.

Chaffinch, 2cy female (31-1)

Note the moult limit in the GC's (the outer three ones are old).

 The new ringing tick! It was just hanging in the top shelf of the net, very calmly just hanging there. Not until I came to extract it! What a powerful bird! I had a hard time, ringing this bird on my own! It was maybe even more difficult to ring than the Pileated Woodpecker at Powdermill haha.

 I was surprised that it remained really calm while holding the pigeon.

 Note the moult limit in the secondaries and the uniform quality of the primaries. Thanks to Stephen Menzie (a.k.a Wood Pigeon moult expert) for helping with the age of the bird. We aged it as a >4cy.

A 2cy bird would show some really worn brown secondaries, a 3cy would have the middle secondary really worn and brown which this one hasn't. This makes it a >4cy.

Faab holding the pigeon!