Robins galore

The Nursery is nearly a warbler free zone, so the best of the ringing is of winter visitors, attracted by the feeding station. Our 2010 'good' passerine new capture figures are as follows:-


Goldfinch 31
Greenfinch 29
Siskin 25
Bullfinch 22
Lesser Redpoll 16
Reed Bunting 16


The total captures have just passed 500 for the year, but there has been a drop in the ratio of new birds/retraps, to which 10 new Robins and 53 retraps are a sizeable chunk. In spite of that the eponymous 'Gate' Robin only 30 metres from the feeding station remains unringed!
If birds learn net placements then X656553 is a very thick bird; we have caught it 13 times since September. On the other hand it gets three meals a day, warm feet on extraction and 15 mins out of the cold in a bird bag.
The pond at the Nursery has been frozen, apart from two days, since mid November and the temperature low at Woodford Airfield was -16 Celsius, so it is interesting to see how a Robin copes.
X656553 maintained 18.3 gms with 0/2 fat/muscle until early December which was the start of a steady rise up to 20.6 gms on Feb 20th with 1/2 fat/muscle.