Monday 19 March 2012

10th Woodcock and a woody

The young whippersnapper C Bridge caught his 10th Woodcock last night along with a Wood Pigeon both in textbook style.



Woody thought to be a 7 due to contrast in secondaries. Interesting to see if this gets recovered somewhere (probably get shot!).   

7 comments:

  1. Rob - you'll have to explain all this numbers lark- don't quote get it. Presume 7 is an adult?

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  2. Rob - you'll have to explain all this numbers lark- don't quote get it. Presume 7 is an adult?

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  3. Marc
    Any odd number is a bird where yo uknow the exact year it was born. e.g 3, current year, 5 last year, 7 year before last. Any even number is for a bird you know the minimum age. 2 is a bird that could have been born this year and applies in late autumn to birds such as Long-tailed Tit and House Sparrow that undergo a complete post juvenile moult so are indistinguishable from adults. 4 is definitely born before this calender year. 6 is definitely born before last calender year etc.

    For example a 3 Blue Tit would be one fledged this year. The year code will change on 1st January and it will become a 5 i.e definitely born the previous year. All '2's' will become '4's' i.e definitley born before the current calender year.

    All young Willow Warblers undertake a complete moult in their wintering grounds so can't be identified to spcific year so when we start catching them in a few weeks they'll be '4's'. Some Chiffchaffs cn be identified so most will be '4's' but we may get some '5's'.

    Make sense?

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  4. Aha! Thanks Phil - I think I get it now.

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  5. Forgot to say '1' refers to pullus (young birds in nest or only just fledged and unable to fly properly or wader chicks).

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  6. Thanks for that Phil.That was very helpful.

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  7. Since been aged as a 5 due to two generations in the secondaries (see the 2 different brown tones).
    Rob

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