Today was a solo effort, since young Ed went off to his new patch at Clophill. Nets went up and the birds came visiting.
Well, they did for about 90 minutes, then an hour long wait for 3 more and, after that flurry, one bird an hour to finish off with. I even put up 2 extra nets (100') but they didn't catch anything. I put it all down to a sudden weather change about 8 o'clock, when the skies cleared, the wind got up and the tops of the nets were bathed in bright sunlight.
"The sky at bright" - taken 8am. (Yes. That is the moon)It went from bad to worse, too.
The list of 22 new and 3 retrapped birds is as follows:
Chiffchaff 2
Blackcap 6
C.Whitethroat 3
Blackbird 2 (1)
Song Thrush 3 (1)
Robin 1
Dunnock 3 (1)
Chaffinch 1
Goldfinch 1
Overhead there were c.16 Swifts and c.20 House Martins in the early morning sun. Also flying over from the main lake, 15 Shoveler ( spooked by the sailing fraternity), 4 calling Gadwall, & 8 Cormorant but no raptors. Inside the ringing sub-site, there was a Lesser Whitethroat on the top of one of the Elderberry bushes for some while, accompanied by a Garden Warbler at first and then by an unringed male Blackcap. Upwards of 8 Goldfinches blogged to and fro, a young Great Spot flew over, the Long-tailed Tits flew through with a few other hangers-on (tits), across (but outside) the corner of the net run. I heard a Bullfinch, a Greenfinch and noticed 2 Crows in the top of the Pear tree, something I spotted last time I was in here. No sign of the Spot Fly that we watched last Sunday.
Total CES tally this year was 96 adults of 21 species, 169 juveniles of 20 species. We have also captured another 45 individuals on extra visits and ringed 81 tit pulli in the same compartment, a grand total of 360 individual birds of 24 species. Blackcap is still "tops" for the site with 56 caught so far ... and another 6 weeks to go before they all disappear.
No comments:
Post a Comment