More of a seaside tan

The weather looked promising. However! It was a cool night with broken cloud and wind from the north. When the nets were up at 5am (BST), there were precious few birds about, just a mewing Buzzard, a noisy Song Thrush, the local Rooks making their way to the tip and the Herring Gulls squawking on the factory roofs. A Chiff hurtled into net 1 ... and hurtled back out again. That was it. The sun was up an hour later and shone brightly, too brightly for my liking. And that cold north wind also picked up, streaming across this flat, open site. Cooked one side, chilled the other.


The beginning of a lovely day - but not for ringing.

Generally, there were far less birds about in the vegetation. Either the majority had moved on in the last night or two, or they had cleared out of the way of that 'evil bastard' that had given them 'a right going over' the other day.

By 10am, the nets were highly visible and starting to blow. It was time to pack up and go home. I did manage to catch 12 new birds and 5 retraps from earlier in the week.

Kingfisher (1)
Long-tailed Tit 2
Blackcap 2 (3)
Whitethroat 3 (1)
Chiffchaff 2
Willow Warbler 1
Goldfinch 2

Weights of the retraps were down a smidgin on last time. A couple of the post juvenile stage Blackcaps were starting to put on some weight but there was no signs of fat deposition as yet.


"Fan-tailed" Willow Warbler - wind assisted.

I intend to look at another piece of 'dead ground' during the week, that will mean going in another way and then being restricted from reaching the rest of the site. It has certain possibilities, especially when the horses are turned out to graze after the hay cut.