Ringing with the Sorby Breck Ringing Group

This morning I joined Geoff Mawson and a few members of the Sorby Breck Ringing Group for their last visit to one of their feeding stations; Renishaw Park. It was a frosty start, with the windscreen requiring a scrape before I left home, but it soon warmed up and turned into a cracking morning.

Renishaw Hall and Gardens is a beautiful estate belonging to the Sitwell family and is a site that Geoff has been ringing at since 1968! The nets were set up around a feeding station in woodland (next to a lake) and in the formal gardens.

As I joined Geoff for an early net round, I could hear nuthatches calling. This is a species that I have never seen in the hand so I asked Geoff if they caught them there. Lo and behold, we got to the nets and there were two nuthatches waiting for us. Another bird was also caught at the other nets. All of the birds were re-traps so I didn’t have chance to ring one but it was fabulous just to process one and to learn the criteria for the plumage difference between the sexes. We were lucky enough to catch a male and two females so I was able to compare the deep chestnut colour of the male against the paler female. Gorgeous birds.

Nuthatch - one of my favourite birds!

The morning also generated my first chiffchaff of the year (again a re-trap) but it was great to see this migrant back in the UK and to hear them singing all morning. Some of the birds we caught had large amounts of pollen on their feathers (above and below the beak) causing the feathers to clump together. The first couple of spring blackcaps were caught too. We were all listening out for willow warbler, but none were heard.

Feathers covered in pollen - probably brought over from their
wintering grounds

Pollen under beak

Throughout the morning we had been treated to the sound of lesser spotted woodpecker calling and drumming. Unfortunately, we didn’t manage to catch one, but a pair did delight us by flying in to feed on a nearby tree. One then briefly flew to an alder sapling just six feet away from the ringing station! It was a fantastic privilege to be that close to such a beautiful and, sadly, uncommon bird. The park is believed to play host to three pairs.

The session was quite steady with a lot of re-traps, especially tits, and we finished on a very respectable 70 odd birds. I was made to feel very welcome by Geoff and the other ringers in the group and I extend my thanks to them for letting me join them. It is such a bonus to be able to gain experience with new birds and with different trainers / ringers and really good to be able to forge new links with another ringing group. I hope to be able to catch up with members of the group again in the future.

Ruth