First new bird of the winter caught and ringed

After a fairly quiet winter last year catching wise, we are hoping to add some wintering birds to our study in an effort to establish where our wintering birds have originated.

On Sunday morning, a couple of us met up at a site where we have had some success catching birds in the past. Generally these sites need to be places where the birds are used to be being fed by people and have lost some of their fear. As such, sites tend to be duck ponds or fast-food car parks!

Unfortunately, birds appeared wary and we only managed to catch and ring one new bird, a first-winter bird. While we at least know the age of this bird, who knows where it has come from. 

In addition to this new study bird, there were 20 re-sightings of colour-ringed birds, including the Lithuanian BHG with a Polish colour-ring that we first recorded at Antrim in October 2012 (see here).

2CJT shortly after being ringed

Perhaps it was the fact it has been slightly milder recently, but we will keep trying and hopefully add a few more individuals in coming months.