There are lots of birds on the move right now. Three images below from ringing this weekend demonstrate features that can be used to determine age, particularly to identify birds hatched this year which is important in assessing breeding success. On the left a juvenile male House Sparrow. This species is one of the few in the UK where both juveniles and adults undergo a complete moult towards the end of the breeding season (i.e replace ALL their feathers). This is moulting out its juvenile plumage and fresh adult type is coming through including the characteristic 'bib' which confirms it as a male. Once moult is complete adults and first years of this species become inseparable. The other two images are of Whitethroats ringed this morning. Middle is a bird with a classic dull brown eye characteristic of a juvenile and right an equally classic 'mature' hazel eye confirming what the plumage also told us that this is an adult. Note too the young birds still retain remnants of a yellow gape from when they were nestlings.
Apologies for the lack of recent updates. Apart from holiday end of November in to December, normal service expected through the winter. Ringing has resumed at Charnwood Lodge with good catches over the last two weekends. Today effort was split between The Lodge and Wigston sewerage farm. At 'the farm' a lovely female Blackcap was ringed (below left). This bird weighed 19.4g and had a fat score of 3. Fat scoring reflects the level of fat laid down by a bird which can be in preparation for migration. Fat shows like a smear of butter just below the skin, especially visible near the throat. The second image below right shows the wing of a first year male Blackbird which has retained old brown greater coverts (3) also primary coverts alula and primary feathers. This marked contrast is often easy to see on birds in the garden. Get the bins out and see if you can separate some first years from adult males (all black).
A good catch of 58 birds at Charnwood Lodge included 22 Goldcrest and 8 Redwing coming to Yew berries. The images below show a close up of this lovely small Scandinavian thrush (note the prominant 'eyebrow') and right the tertials (the three feathers tiled down from the birds back) which have worn ill-defined pale fringes indicating an adult bird. Last week the session ended with a stunning Sparrowhawk but sadly no photo.
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