Two different days

Thursday it was Carlton (DTH's garden actually). 18 birds, all new, as follows.


Robin 5 with one looking like a continental jobbie, Blackbird 5 of the many around the village which is surrounded by farmland, Blue Tit 3, Chaffinch 4 of which 3 were 'ladies' & a lone Treecreeper.
A Jackdaw escaped our clutches when it was approached on the "wrong" side of the net.


We had hoped to catch a few coming down to brown bread and cranberries, but nothing transpired; it did give us a bit of practice with the 'whoosh' net (very fast!). The farmer next door had the grain dryer going and lorries in and out. Too much activity?

On several occasions, a pair of Buzzards drifted over, giving good views


Friday was back to tradition - the feeding station at Priory. The squirrels soon appreciated the containers being filled again. It must be in their stars!
An impressive list of 21 retraps and 6 new birds - 1 scruffy Blackbird, 4 mixed age Blue Tits & a big, juv male Chaffinch.
The retraps were 1 Blabi, 7 Bluti, 8 Greti, 2 Lotti, 2 Dunno & 1 Robin. One of the Great Tits was ringed as a pullus and is now over 2100 days old, our 3rd oldest ever.

Good to see Mr Reed doing some passerines instead of 10kg 'lumps'.

Pics by David Howes (newest trainee)

See also PCP blog for Fri/Sat. (Errol)

Snow cover

2 inches of the powdery stuff on Sunday 1st, then 4 inches more on Thursday 5th followed by 3 inches of 'wet' snow on the Friday. Possibly some more forecast for next week?


Woke up today to see 4 Fieldfare in the garden - so I put some apples out and one stayed to take advantage. Not a good photo of the first occurence of this species actually 'on the deck' in the garden (in 13 years). Put a net up at middayday, when the main feeding activity had diminished.


Did manage to catch a fresh 5M Goldfinch (one has been knocking around on the feeders with all the other, ringed ones - was this it?), a new 6F Starling (is it the 7th of the 7 regulars?) and 2 new Song Thrushes, one a 5(F) and this one, which I am sure is a 6 but one that has not moulted as normal. Perhaps it lost some primary feathers (and regrew them) before the main moult and didn't bother to replace them then. Last bird was a new 5F Greenfinch.

All weights were within the expected range for each species for this time of year.

Ed has been out and about and found 2 of our c-r Mute Swans, before he got to Willington, where he had to check Mark's traps, etc.