Sunday at the allotment

The 18m Allotment Net Photo: Andy Daw

Sunday was lovely, warm with the dunnocks and great tits calling, I opened the allotment net for a few hours - surprisingly small number of retraps but stand out birds were 2 male yellowhammers - these are the first yellowhammers caught at the allotment - the 2 males were separated by an hour - its these sort of surprises, the movement patterns that you don't expect that make ringing at the allotment a delight.

Photo: Andy Daw

Pulli ringing

Over the last 3 years we have been ringing pulli on the college estate.

This includes a number of classic tit nest boxes scattered around the estate. In the 2009 breeding season we ringed 50 bluetit pulli and 54 great tit pulli.

Photo: Steve Jeffery

With the help of the gardening team and Steve J's keen observational skills we were able to ring 27 pied wagtail pulli last year. These were also colour ringed as part of the Pied White wagtail project that Steve Hales my trainer is involved with. See http://www.devonbirds.org/node/372 for more information.

Photo: Steve Jeffery

Photo: Steve Jeffery

In 2009 we also rang:

• 7 stock dove pulli that had taken residence in our barn owl boxes
• 40 swallow pulli - I was hoping to do more adults last year for an RAS but the adult swallows were a bit too clever for me
• 4 blackbird chicks - we really should manage a few more of these!

I am already geting excited about this year!

2010 Martinstown

A quiet start to the year with the nets around the feeders closed to let the birds feed easily but a couple of short sesions with the allotment net open has yielded dunno 1, bluti 2, goldf 2, chaff  2, blabi 1, housp 1 and rewin 1.

Picture: Sam Daw

January 2010 - College ringing

On the College farm the maize clamp face at Higher Dairy is acting as a magnet to starlings, blackbirds, chaffinches and pied wagtails.

On Sunday, 3rd Janauary, I tried my 6m net by a gateway and tall hedge for an hour and caught 6 chaffinch and a couple of house sparrows - so today I set up the 6m and an 18m net a little closer to the clamp in preparation for some ringing tomorrow. In 20 minutes of the nets being up 6 starlings, 4 chaffinch, 2 robins, a dunnock and a blackbird poped into the nets - lets hope the wind is not too strong tomorrow!

2009 ringing

I started ringing on my own on May 1 and managed 1193 birds and pulli caught and processed - this included 126 retraps. I also did some ringing with Steve Hales my trainer at the Abbotsbury Swannery, with Terry and the Radipole Ringing Group and a trip with the Axe Estuary Ringing Group - together the 2009 year total was 1344 birds caught, processed or ringed.


The majority of the DT2 birds were caught in Martinstown. I had always assumed I would catch breeding and resident birds but it turns out there is a little migration corridor through the village as the birds seem to follow the South Winterborne River. Some more detail about 891 birds caught in Martinstown over the next few weeks but a couple of grasshopper warblers, 10 garden warblers, 6 sedge warblers and a reed warbler through August and September indicate there is something going on!