This morning I joined the ringers at Morton Bagot, briefly, before trying my luck on the rest of the site. But before I get to that, this is a summary of the last few days' ringing there.
On Thursday Tony put in a solo effort, and came up with impressive numbers of Lesser Redpolls in particular. Today it was the turn of Leigh and her team, who were equally busy and caught even more Lesser Redpolls.
Thursday Sunday
Blue Tit 46 (4) 36 (6)
Great Tit 6 (2) 11 (3)
Marsh Tit 1
Long-tailed Tit 5 (1)
Goldcrest 1 2
Chiffchaff 1
Treecreeper 1(1)
Robin 1
Stonechat 1
Wren 1
Dunnock 1
Greenfinch 6
Lesser Redpoll 54 65
Goldfinch 1
Reed Bunting 1
So there is no doubt that Lesser Redpolls have been on the move in big numbers this week.
The team have caught 119 different birds in the course of four days. Today the majority were juveniles, but there was also the odd pinkish male.
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| Juvenile Lesser Redpoll |
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| Adult male Lesser Redpoll |
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| Reed Bunting (female/immature) |
Away from the ringers I actually saw very little. On Saturday John Chidwick had seen 20 Redwings in the hedge by the flash, but today I saw just two.
There was a pair of Stonechats at Netherstead, but regrettably I didn't approach them closely. The reason I should have made more effort is that Tony is now colour-ringing them, and I had forgotten that he caught a male on Thursday.
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| Thursday's male Stonechat |
So I missed the opportunity to see whether that particular bird was still here.
The flashes are now full of water, and were disappointingly bird-less. Just a few Teal, Mallard, and Lapwing were present.
Leigh mentioned that they had seen a Sparrowhawk patrolling the hedgerows near the mist nets, and on my way back to the car I saw it approaching.
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| Sparrowhawk out of the blue |
So all in all there was plenty to see as long as you remembered to pack your mist net.
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