Ringing Resumes!

Visitors have been enjoying bird watching from the comfort of the Field Centre and hides. The back garden of the centre has been full of birds frequenting the bird feeders. There have been flocks of Chaffinch, Brambling, Redpoll and Siskin plus the usual Great Tit, Blue Tit, Coal Tit and Marsh Tit. 

Bird ringing activities had to be put on hold at the start of the year due to local outbreaks of bird flu followed by a lot of very windy weather! However, the Avian Influenza surveillance zone close to the reserve has now been removed and the weather has finally calmed down, so at the weekend the Swaledale Bird Ringers dusted off their pliers and put some mist nets out after a long break!

A pair of Nuthatches were ringed, these are often seen from the kitchen window.

Several Long tailed Tits were amongst the 157 birds that were ringed in total.

The totals were:

2 Blackbirds, 41 Blue Tits, 1 Brambling, 41 Bullfinches, 17 Coal Tits, 1 Dunnock, 2 Great Spotted Woodpeckers, 7 Great Tits, 18 Redpoll, 3 Robins and 2 Nuthatches.

It is most unusual that at Foxglove the numbers of Bullfinches caught are equal to the numbers of Blue Tits!