Ringing summary - Corton 2003

Ringing at Corton - Autumn 2003

Green Woodpecker - Corton - 8th October 2003 - © Colin Carter

For several years now Corton has been recognized locally as one of the best areas to look for migrants. The main advantage over sites within Lowestoft itself being the relatively low level of disturbance. As the town of Lowestoft has grown over the years the available habitat has inevitably been nibbled away, but more importantly the regularity of disturbance, due to sheer weight of numbers, has increased massively.

So with a proven track record of producing migrants and a fairly low level of disturbance Corton seemed an excellent choice of venue for Colin Carter to carry out ringing trials this autumn.

The first day saw a total of 35 birds of 11 species ringed. The predominant species were Blackbird (10) and Blue Tit (6), and these two were to remain the top two throughout. Ten sessions were carried out over a period of a month between 13th October and 10th November 2003; and during that time a total of 396 birds of 22 species were ringed.

A notable highlight were the two European Treecreepers of the migratory nominate race caught at the end of October and beginning of November. A few were seen along the north coast of The Netherlands at the time and are apparently more or less annual visitors to there from Scandinavia nowadays.

The very prominent sparkling white supercilium and the very white flanks are shown to good effect in the photo to the left. Compared to the British race they also have a more contrastingly rufous rump.

Left: nominate European Treecreeper, Corton, 5th November 2003 © Colin Carter

The commonest species by a factor of three over its' nearest rival was the Blackbird, with 157 ringed. Blackbirds were certainly present in very large numbers this year, but it was still a surprise to see this many different birds caught at this one site in just a month. The total passing through just this one small area each year must be huge.

Redwings were also frequently present in very large numbers, but these tended to fly up and away rather than along the hedgerows like the Blackbirds, and as a result only eight of them were caught. Redpolls were quite numerous at times as well, but were mostly flying over at height, and only one Lesser Redpoll came down low enough to be caught.

Only one Chiffchaff was caught during the period even though a few were still lingering in the area at the time. Blackcaps proved rather more obliging with a total of nine. A Yellow-browed Warbler was present on October 27th, but unfortunately didn't venture into the nets. Goldcrests were fairly numerous and 27 were caught in all. Firecrest numbers were down on last year, but a pair were caught on October 16th.

Firecrest - Corton - October 2003 © Robert Wincup

RINGING AT CORTON - AUTUMN 2003

* = Short ringing session.	13/10	16/10	21/10*	24/10	27/10	31/10	5/11*	8/11*	9/11	10/11	TOTAL
SPARROWHAWK	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1	-	1
WOOD PIGEON	-	-	-	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	1
GREEN WOODPECKER	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1	-	-	1
WREN	1	3	-	2	5	2	-	-	-	-	13
DUNNOCK	2	2	-	-	4	-	2	4	-	-	14
ROBIN	5	2	1	1	7	6	1	3	-	-	26
BLACKBIRD	10	6	7	36	37	27	9	7	7	11	157
SONG THRUSH	1	1	-	3	2	3	1	-	1	-	12
REDWING	4	1	-	2	-	-	1	-	-	-	8
BLACKCAP	1	1	-	4	1	1	-	-	-	1	9
CHIFFCHAFF	-	-	-	-	1	-	-	-	-	-	1
GOLDCREST	2	11	-	5	4	4	-	-	-	1	27
FIRECREST	-	2	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	2
LONG-TAILED TIT	2	-	1	7	3	18	3	-	1	-	35
BLUE TIT	6	4	-	5	20	9	3	1	1	2	51
GREAT TIT	1	-	-	-	5	4	1	1	1	-	13
TREECREEPER	-	-	-	-	-	1	1	-	-	-	2
JAY	-	-	-	-	1	-	-	-	-	-	1
CHAFFINCH	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	3	3	6
GREENFINCH	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	8	3	11
LESSER REDPOLL	-	-	-	-	1	-	-	-	-	-	1
BULLFINCH	-	-	-	-	-	1	-	-	1	2	4
TOTALS	35	33	9	66	91	76	22	17	24	23	396

Ringing data supplied by Colin Carter