Leicestershire produces record Nuthatches

Ian Gamble writes:

"Birds have been ringed in my parent’s garden in Quorn, Leicestershire, for some 60 years and this has provided us with a wealth of information on our local birds. The garden, which is 80 feet long and 40 feet wide, borders onto a mixed woodland called Kay’s Plantation. In 1991 I married and left Quorn for Hertfordshire and now only return to Quorn to visit family, usually over New Year on my father's birthday (20th March). During these periods I get a few hours ringing in while they are still sleeping.

Ian's parents' garden in Quorn

Nuthatch is a localised resident in Quorn and regularly feeds in the garden and had nested on and off for nearly 50 years in a nest box that my father had put up at the bottom of the garden until it fell off few years ago. You would always know when the birds were starting to use the box because they would plaster mud around the entrance hole. These birds are sedentary and we catch the same individuals with some regularity over two or three years. The largest number caught in any one year was five in 1967, and we have ringed four birds in a year on four occasions, with 74 individuals ringed in the garden over the years.

Prior to this latest capture, the oldest individual retrapped was 4 years 6 months old. Over the last few years my father had kept saying to me he thought the male Nuthatch was quite old, but no matter how hard I tried I couldn't catch it. Sunday 22nd March 2015 (whilst visiting my father on his 88th birthday) was a fine still morning and I decided to get in a few hours ringing in before church. One of the birds caught was a Nuthatch; an adult male with ring number TE27966. I immediately realised it was old, but not quite sure just how old!

Nuthatch in the garden (not the record-breaker, who was camera-shy)

On my return home to Hertfordshire I checked it out on IPMR and found that I had ringed it on 31st December 2005, making it well over nine years old! I had previously retrapped this bird on 24th March 2007, 21st March 2009 and 1st January 2010. As highlighted above, this is one case where understanding the movements of the ringer is more important than the movements of the bird..."

The previous longevity record for Nuthatch was a bird ringed in the nest May 1964 (also in Leicestershire!) and killed by a cat  in February 1973, making it 8 years 8 months old.