Some month

Today is my birthday and it also happens to be one month since I started ringing at this site. At least I've been able to put one or two nets up this week in between the prolonged rain showers. What a month it has been. Will the next four weeks be as productive? Just praying for another spell of cold weather to entice the Bramblings back in before it's too late.


The 5Male Blackcap with 3 ogc's.
Yesterday teatime, I caught my sixth Blackcap; this one was another 2CY male (Euring 5M) and it had 3ogc (three old greater coverts), the greatest number of retained feathers out of the four other 5M's and the singleton 5F (female). All birds, except one, have had fat scores of 20-35 ESF and muscle score 2. The exception was a small male (wing 70.5mm) with a fat score of 10 and a weight of just 15.8g. This coincided with four nights of sharp frosts (to minus 7C) straight after, so I don't hold out much hope for that individual. The average weight of the other five has been 20.4g (19.1 - 22.3g)

The last four days have produced the following 10 species, in all just 33 new birds: Blue Tit 2, Blackcap 1, Wren 1, Blackbird 2, (Robin 3 r/t, all different), Dunnock 1, Chaffinch 2, Greenfinch 3, Goldfinch 16, Siskin 5. That brings the last calendar month's total to 373.

The top five are: Goldfinch 143, Brambling 44, =Blue Tit =Greenfinch 35, Siskin 23.

Late Extra!! - I've just checked the nets this lunch-time, and, guess what, a birthday present in the shape of another 5M Blackcap (obw - alula feathers retained), making 375 new birds over the past 31 days, and 7 Blackcaps!