Winter Ringing at Killellan

The Net Site

I have been running a bird feeding station in the woods at Killellan since the end of October but unfortunately due to illness and bad weather the morning of Sunday 20th January was the first opportunity that I had to carry out some ringing. That being said the weather still wasn't the best with a stiff easterly breeze bringing the temperature down with accompanying flurries of snow, however the net site was sheltered within the woods making a ringing session possible. The area has had 5 peanut feeders, 2 suet ball feeders and mixed seed spread on the ground and the number of birds making use of the station has increased steadily, including a solitary cock Pheasant who had taken to breaking open the plastic tubs in which I kept the food to get at the contents.
TOTALS FOR THE DAY

CHAFFINCH - 31
COAL TIT - 17
BLUE TIT - 9+2 re traps
GREAT TIT - 15
DUNNOCK - 1
ROBIN - 1

GRAND TOTAL - 76 BIRDS

Since putting up the feeders here I have noticed that Coal Tits appeared to be the most numerous of the tits using this site, a complete turn around from last years figures that had Blue Tit as the most common bird caught (the Chaffinch flock have only started feeding here since the beginning of January). Although a very small sample this appears to be tallying with reports nationally that show that Coal tits are making a lot more use of garden feeding stations than they have in previous years. The reasons could be two fold but both the result of the weather in 2012 being very wet, the second wettest on record. This weather seems to be the cause of a poor seed crop for the year leaving the Coal tit struggling to find food, also the very damp weather causes pine cones to close tight making the seeds inaccessible. This weather also appears to be the cause of a very poor breeding year for the Blue tit in 2012, with lots of nests failing at the chick stage, where as the Breeding success for the Coal Tit did not seem to be as affected

Blue Tit

Coal Tit

The Capture of a single Robin was a bit disappointing as I have been watching up to eight of these potentially aggressive birds struggling with their natural territoriality to allow each other to make use of the food provided, there has been lots of singing and chasing of one another but I haven't yet witnessed any of their sometimes fatal battles

Robin

Male Chaffinch - notice the dark area above the bill where the dull feathers of the winter plumage are wearing away to reveal the glossy black of the breeding, summer plumage

Dunnock

TAWNY OWL STUDY

Tawny owl "brancher"

Its long been an idea of mine to carry out a study on Tawny Owls here in Kintyre to compliment the already long running Barn owl study that has been in existence in one form or another since 1995. With that in mind my son Daniel and I have recently been in the process of placing 10 new Tawny Owl boxes in known territories around south Kintyre. Initially it is intended to guage how quickly and easily the Tawny owls take to nest boxes that have been sited in known territories, this will also give an indication of population size (at least in the Campbeltown area to begin with). It has already been well established that these birds do frequently use man made boxes but I would like to see this in action myself before expanding the area of the study and increasing the number of boxes available.
 It will also be of interest to compare the breeding success of Tawny owls on a year to year basis with the Barn owl. The Tawny owl diet is not as reliant on the population fluctuations of the Short Tailed Vole as the Barn Owls, with the Barn Owl in studies showing that the field vole made up 45.8% of its diet compared with 13.6% in the Tawny owl. However the study will hopefully reveal what unique factors the Tawnys face that determine a successful (or not) breeding season. Progress and other news relating to this study will be posted on this blog.

Final attachments fitted to a new box

New box in place

Also took opportunity to put up a new Barn owl box