Some merit

Funny old week with the weather so changeable even it didn't know what it was doing from one moment to the next. Yesterday (Sunday) was different, with a howling gale and steady rain night and day ("wet stuff" amounted to 18mm).

A few birds were caught, by 'a few' I mean 26, of which 16 were new. The adults versus juvs turned out to be 50/50, so we are not yet into the hatch-year mega-season. [Then I would expect around 80% juveniles in any one session]

This week's on/off effort produced:-


Blue Tit 4, only 1 juv
GreatTit 3, all juvs, all in the net together
Long-tailed Tit (5), originally ringed 2 weeks earlier when the had shorter wing lengths
Blackcap 1, a juvenile, the 1st this year (above)
Wren 1, another ad. male
Blackbird 2 (2), 2 new juveniles plus 2 males
Robin 1, a juv
Dunnock 1 (1), both ad. males
Goldfinch 1 (2), getting difficult to sort into 2CY or older
Siskin 2, a pair at the nyger feeders (below)


On the nyger theme, somebody needs to import or make the finch socks that they use in the US of A; I think they might prove to work better than our current 2 types of tube feeders.


That one's for the train buffs out there. This weekend a "diesel gala" was held on the West Somerset and this 'Warship class 42', manifestly sporting battleship grey (actually, the undercoat, as it's undergoing a BR livery re-paint), was photographed entering Williton station with the signalman taking the token. "Onslaught" was built at Swindon in 1961 and is one of two survivors, having been de-commisioned in 1972 in favour of the heavier and more powerful 'Western class 52s'. An example of the latter, D1010 "Western Campaigner", is based at the DEPG depot at Williton but is badged up as D1035 "Western Yeoman".