The weather forecast was turned on its head on Monday. I went out to the water meadows with the intention of catching a few birdies - but the wind had other ideas. All the small song birds were well hunkered down in the 18-30 mph winds off the sea. Not at all like the 8-10 mph "breeze" that was forecast on Saturday; just shows, you have to watch the national and local TV forecasts before you go to bed on the preceeding evening - or you might be getting up, like I did, in vain.
Monday's Strato-Cumulus approaching.
The young Herring Gulls have fully fledged and have taken to stooging around the industrial estate and the locomotive sheds. I counted 195 Canada Geese heading south-east towards the Levels from the direction of Blue Anchor Bay. One of the local Peregrines appeared at low level and rounded the new woodland on the hill to the east and attempted to cut out one of the Jackdaws but it was spooked by his/her friends and all six harried the Peg away towards its home well away over the other side of the valley.
Sum total = nil birds caught.
The following day, Tuesday, I put a 40' net up in the front garden for a while. It was sheltered from the wind and I managed to catch a few birds.
Blue Tit (2); adult & a juv
Blackcap 1; juv
Blackbird 3; all juv, 2 males
Robin (2); adult and juv, both finishing their (different) moults.
House Sparrow 1;
Greenfinch 2; a 2CY & a F juv
Spent the next two days tripping over contractors, potential suppliers and visitors so no chance of indulging in a little net watching!
Today, Friday, I got up fairly early and was pleased to see that the wind had died down. It had, however, switched direction and was coming from the south-west. In the past, it has not been a good direction so I decided to stick with two nets close to each other, amounting to a mere 100 feet. I would have liked to have stayed all morning but I needed to get back to attend to "household activities".
Seventeen was a reasonable haul for three hours patience. I had had to use the "other car" and that meant leaving alot of my gear in my car which was stuck on the drive behind the current contractors' large trailer. Still, I made do and when I returned home had the pleasure of mending these two (Jap) nets where they had come "undone".
So ....
Chiffchaff 9; 2 adult males, the rest juvs mostly PJ-ing
Blackcap 2
Whitethroat 1
Sedge Warbler 1; my first (and only) juv of the season
Dunnock 3
Bullfinch 1; a recently fledged juv
A poor pic of the Sedge but it shows the necklace of spots that only juveniles have.
Today's notable sightings were 2 Little Egrets heading upstream and my first two, ever, sightings of Grey Squirrel (or "tree rats") in the 1kilometer square. Am I still up to "Empire Marksman" standard? One of the two juvenile Buzzards from on the hill was 'mewlling' on the lecky pylon.
I hope to get out tomorrow or Sunday as it seems to be the right sort of time for our birdies to head for France and all points south.
E
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