May 18 2025
The nest boxes have now all hatched and seven of the broods were over the eight days old required for ringing so we headed into the woodland early evening on a very sunny Sunday.
We took it in turns to do the various tasks. Ruedi showed us how to safely handle the chicks and we took each one gently out of the nest and placed them into a cap to keep them safe and together. This method worked for most broods, but the oldest of the broods were a bit flighty and kept trying to make a break for freedom so we shared them out in the group to hold while doing the ringing.
Ruedi ringed the chick and measured the wing and then one of the NERD Club members weighed the bird. We took it in turned to record the information in the notebook.
In total we ringed 54 chicks, both blue tits and great tits, taking the total ringed to 70.
In addition we had a look at the scene of a wildlife mystery. We have been finding smeary scratches which look like blood on the windows of one of the cottages and splattering of blood on the windowsills. It’s all a bit gory. We keep wiping them off and it happens again. I have cleaned those windows three times now and the same thing happens again. We have been trying to work out what is going on – one possibility is that we had a buzzard up at our house which a couple of times managed to catch a pigeon by chasing it against the window or wall of the house by the bird-feeder. It is possible this bird has switched its hunting to the Roundhouse windows which seem to be especially reflective. However when there was a pigeon kill at our house there was always loads of feathers left on the ground, and we haven’t found any in this case.
To try and solve this mystery we have now set up a camera trap to see whether we can get any footage of what is happening and we will keep you updated!
Upper Woodburn 