13/02/12 - Breaking records

As of today we have ringed 203 ducks this month making it the best February to date after 174 in February 2004 (and we are only half way through the month). That’s 359 ducks during 2012, including exactly 220 Teal, which represents between 10-16% of the UK annual ringing totals over the last 5 years. It should hopefully generate a few recoveries in the years to come...

Although most of the effort has been focused upon wildfowl ringing, the net at the base feeding station has been open for a couple of hours during the last week in-between other jobs around the base. This accounted for 30 new birds with suggestions of an influx of un-ringed Robins, Dunnocks and Blackbirds mirroring other local sites. Three Reed Buntings were nice at this site whilst a Fieldfare was the first of the year to be caught. Up to 6 Short-Eared Owls were present in the southern half of the valley on Saturday (11^th) whilst 2 Kingfishers are also still present on the River Derwent at North Duffield Carrs. 

Following on from Saturday it was a similar picture yesterday (but slightly warmer one) with 6 new Wigeon, 4 Teal, 2 Mallard and a Moorhen, whilst amongst the re-traps was another different Shelduck, originally ringed in the valley in June 2010.

Today (Monday 13^th) once again delivered another huge catch - 46 birds in the trap with another 26 new: 20 Teal, 5 Wigeon and 1 Mallard, with re-traps including a Moorhen, Coot and Pintail - 6 species of wildfowl.