Tits & crows

Back to Barry's garden in Burton this week for a days ringing as part of Johns study on the over winter survival rates of Blue Tits. We caught over 100 birds of which a staggering 50% were Blue Tits. Of these the ratio between adults and juveniles was approximately 50:50. It was nice to catch one of the Great Tits we'd ringed back in the spring as a pullus and in keeping with my control of a Great Tit last weekend we also controlled two Blue Tits.

 Ringers with hands full of tits.

There has been a lot of talk about Jay movements recently on 't'internet' as they seem to be seeing all over the place this year. The question is whether these are genuinely part of an influx from the continent or local birds searching for food as our acorn crop seems to have failed.

With Barry reporting up to 4 birds in his garden it wasn't long before I was asked to give blood in the cause and extract then ring a Jay - one of two we caught. These birds were definitely locally bred as Barry has seen two adults and two juveniles. It will be very interesting to see where these other birds originate from and hopefully a few ringing recoveries from UK ringed birds this winter will help answer the question and go someway to settling the debate.

 The Jays revenge.

Honour satisfied it posed for a picture.

All photo's courtesy of Barry Barnacal.