Pretty little things

After some weeks of no ringing I felt like doing some bird ringing again. On Saturday morning I joined Hans, Gerrit and Tammo for some ringing along the IJssel. I arrived a little bit later but I didn't miss anything so far. Blackcaps were around in good numbers with some 40 ringed in the early morning. So were the tits. Groups of Coal tits mixed with Blue and Great Tits came by, of which we were able to catch some. About 30 Coal Tits came by, but only two responded well enough to the tape to end up in the nets. They don't seem to respond that well to the tape then they usually do.. Anyway, another pretty surprise was a sweet Firecrest. It had been a while that I'd handled one (not if you take all the Golden-crowned Kinglets into account that I ringed last year). We ended the morning with a decent total of ~85 birds.

 Firecrest (Regulus ignicapillus), first year male

Coal Tit (Periparus ater), first year birds

What would taste better?

A Feral Pigeon or a Wood Pigeon? We discussed this matter in depth yesterday.

 Menzie seems to go for the Wood Pigeon.

Whilst Faab doesn't seem particularly happy with the Feral Pigeon.. 

So I guess the Wood Pigeon is our lucky winner!

Other birds ringed in the garden yesterday afternoon included a varied bunch of species. Several Goldfinches, Blue Tits, two Coal Tits, a Greenfinch, a juvenile Dunnock and the undoubtedly highlights Feral (well we didn't ring it) & Wood Pigeon.

 Wood Pigeon (Columba palumbus)

 Goldfinch (Carduelis carduelis), 3J in English terms

 Greenfinch (Carduelis chloris), 2cy male

 Dunnock (Prunella modelularis), 3J with a tasty meelworm in its mouth!

 Pair of Coal Tits (Periparus ater), female left; male right

They turned out to be a nice comparison: the female (upper one) was a 2cy; note the brown alulas and primary coverts. The male (the one below) was a >2cy; dark alulas and dark primary coverts in contrast to the female. Both had started the post-breeding moult.

Yesterday we bought some wire at the shops and spend quite a few hours building a trap for in the garden; aiming for trapping the Wood Pigeons of course:) We had finished it in the evening and put it out this morning. We already have result: a Robin!

I would also like to share this photo of a Tree Sparrow (Passer montanus) pullus:

Wednesday afternoon we joined David Norman again for some pulli ringing this time. We went to a farm with Tree Sparrows. We ringeds a few broods of Tree Sparrow, a single House Sparrow brood and a single brood of Great Tits.