A busier month than April, with 289 birds ringed. While training is still restriced due to social distances, more experienced members of the group were able to get out and run some projects.
May's total includes 27 boxling Blue Tits and good numbers of newly-fledged juveniles. Blue Tit were top species on 62, but House Sparrow and Reed Warbler did well at 30, with Blackcap at 29. Patience secured a Carrion Crow in the Windsor garden – a rarely ringed species for the group.
Reports suggest that the cold spring delayed the caterpillar hatch and failed Blue Tit nests have been noted. No controls were reported this month but there was a sighting of a near 13-year old Black-headed Gull breeding at Bedfont that was ringed at Bedfont.
It was good to see good numbers at our sites and the return of our warblers. With training, one can identify some indivduals as hatching last year. The below Blackcap, was such a bird of 2020, identifed using characterics such as an unmoulted outer greater covert.
Knowing the survival rates of each species tells us much about how species are coping with the pressures, both of breeding in Britain and wintering in Africa.
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| Blackcap, telltale unmoulted feather identifies a young bird |
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