Unusual retrap

I have been neglecting the blog a bit recently but hopefully there will be regular updates now that autumn migration is gathering pace. I have been out and about whenever time and the weather have allowed and have caught 127 new birds and 18 retraps of 22 species since my last post. It is not a big total but its not bad considering the way the weather has been up here. The top five species ringed over the period (14th - 20th July) with retraps in brackets were: Swallow 24; Willow Warbler 18 (1); Chiffchaff; 18 (2); Goldfinch 11 (2); Tree Sparrow 9 (1).

The most unusual capture was an adult male Kestrel that was caught in a mist net at Crawford. I don't catch Kestrels very often and I have often gone years without catching one but this was even more unusual because it was a retrap. It was a bird that had been ringed at the same site a few weeks earlier, on 21/04/15. This year has been very poor for voles, their main food, so I can only assume this particular Kestrel has taken to feeding on small birds coming to the feeders at Crawford or the population of small mammals is doing better in the vicinity of the feeders because of the constant supply of seeds. Perhaps it is a combination of the two factors but it certainly is an unusual recapture.

Adult male Kestrel recaptured 20/07/15