October 2025 at Wraysbury

We had a fruitful month's ringing at Wraysbury during October, catching a total of 140 birds. 

Some of these will have been from the last wave of summer visitors heading South to their wintering grounds, e.g. Chiffchaff and Blackcap. And some will have arrived from further North to spend the winter months in Southern England. We were pleased to ring the first Redwing of the autumn (on the 11th), 4 Meadow Pipits and 15 Redpolls (a species we don't encounter commonly at Wraysbury). More excitingly, 2 young male Stonechats were a pleasant surprise in our nets! These Stonechats were the first to be caught at Wraysbury since 2008!

 Our first Redwing (Turdus iliacus) this autumn, Age 4.

Redpoll (Acanthis flammea cabaret), Age 4 male.

 

Stonechat (Saxicola rubicola), Age 3 male.

 Stonechat, Age 3 male with 4 old greater coverts on right wing.

Goldcrests and Green Woodpecker at Wraysbury

 We had a productive ringing session for autumn migrants last weekend, processing 97 birds (5 recaptures and 92 newly ringed). Most notably, we ringed 41 Chiffchaffs, which are passing through South in decent numbers at this time of year. 

We also ringed 4 Goldcrests (a.k.a. Europe's smallest bird!). They were all young birds that had fledged this year, 3 males and 1 female. These were most likely local birds, however some Scandinavian Goldcrests do migrate to the UK to overwinter here.

Goldcrest (Age 3J, female)

The recaptures included a young female Green Woodpecker, which had been ringed at the end of July. This individual could now be sexed as female due to there being no trace of red in its black submoustachial stripe.

Green Woodpecker (Age 3, female)

  

Age 3 criterion: diagnostic white-tipped tertials

Sex F: black moustachial stripe with no trace of red

Great Spotted Woodpeckers

These three juvenile Great Spotted Woodpeckers - a male and two females, found their way into the net at Wraysbury yesterday. Most likely they are siblings from the same brood this year.

 

Spotted Flycatcher at Wraysbury

Spotted Flycatcher has become a rare passage migrant through our area, with a bird ringed at Wraysbury this month being the first encountered here since 2003.

This individual hatched this year, retaining all its white/pale-tipped juvenile greater-coverts apart from the inner-most one that has been replaced.. 

Lesser Whitethroat juv/adult tail feathers

A juvenile Lesser Whitethroat ringed in early August had opportunistically replaced its right outer tail-feathers while retaining all its juvenile feathers on the left-side.

The photo provides a good example of the differences between juvenile and adult tail-feathers in this species.

Right: T6-T5=adult; T4 missing; T3 growing; T2-T1=juvenile

Left: All 6 are retained juvenile tail feathers 

 

Lesser Whitethroat (Age3J)

Contact

Runnymede Ringing Group operates from Maidenhead in the north to Chobham in the south covering parts of Berkshire, Middlesex and Surrey.

We use ringing to monitor bird populations contributing to conservation projects through the BTO.

 

Training for Barn Owl nest monitoring and ringing is also available in the Marlow area.

 
Please send any queries to runnymederinginggroup@gmail.com.

House Sparrow, 2024

October - an old Jay and a long-distance migrant gull

The group got out to Bedfont and Minet, in addition to a couple of sessions at Wraysbury.

A mid-month visit took place at Bedfont. Summer migrants had gone and winter visitors had yet to arrive in number - that's just the way it sometimes goes. Blue Tits dominated the numbers and were joined by a good range of species including Blackbirds, Chiffchaffs, Goldcrest and a band of Long-tailed Tits.

A nine-year Jay turned up at Minet; hatched in 2014 and ringed in 2015, taking it well past the typical 4-years an average Jay can expect. The UK record for a Jay is 16 years 9 months, set in 1983. The same session had a female Sparrowhawk taking the sites ratio of female:male ratio to 5:7. Quite different to the group ratio for this species of 1:3.1. Both ratios reflect our use of passerine nets that female Sparrowhawks tend not to be caught in - their larger size making a net's mesh size behave like a blanket to them which they can roll out of.

The first session at Wraysbury, on the 8th, was good for October. The last of the Blackcaps numbered fifteen and we ringed twenty Meadow Pipit too. We caught one of two Grey Wagtails that had come down to our pipit triangle of nets (a right-angle triangle using 18m/9m/12m nets). The second visit on 22nd was quieter: the Blackcaps were gone, replaced by the first Redwings arrivals. A few pipits were ringed and a Green Woodpecker provided a trainee a new ringing experience.

Ring-sightings

at Datchet

A Bedfont Black-headed Gull chick was sighted this October, 13 years 4months after we ringed it.

at River Thames, Windsor

A Black-headed Gull ringed at the nest in 2002 in Ijsselmeerpolders, The Netherlands turned up at Windsor.

A series of photos patiently gets a full ring number

A Greylag Goose seen in October turned out to have been ringed just 14km away in Southall in September.