Getting autumnal

The leaves are beginning to turn on the trees and the mornings, apart from being darker, are colder and with a dampness in the air. Ringing has been hit and miss with a couple of early morning garden sessions and, likewise, a couple on the water meadows. The winds have had a southerly component, so not alot of 'joy' in the nets. Nevertheless, it's all 'good stuff' and grist to the mill. I am still on course for 2,000 new birds for the year for the 1km square where I live.

Garden birds:
Blue Tit 1 (1)
Great Tit 1 (1)
Coal Tit 1
Long-tailed Tit 2 (2)
Chiffchaff 1
Blackbird (1)
Robin 1 (2)
Goldfinch 6


3J female Goldcrest, mid Sept. On passage?

Down-along-the-stream birds:
Goldcrest 1
Long-tailed Tit (1)
Chiffchaff 12 (2)
Blackcap 6
Wren 1
Robin 1 (2)

Whilst processing a Blackcap on day 2, I noticed that 3 Chiffchaffs had gone into net 2 all of a sudden. Turning back to the job in hand, out of the corner of my eye, I glimpsed a Woodpigeon heading that way. Lo and behold, it hit the 40' net at full tilt - and out sprang the 3 Chiffs! What a b*gg*r!

Other birds seen - 3-4 Buzzards wheeling over the house and the meadows (the local pair and their off-spring), very few Swallows now, just the 1 local family brood and small parties south every now and then, the local House Martins, a couple of Great Spots, a Green Woodpecker (red-letter day!), a family party of Magpies with still reliant (begging) young, a Green Sand, the first 3 Mipits of the "winter", a lone Sky Lark south, a flock of perhaps 2 dozen Goldfinches (yippee!) and 4 Little Egberts (that I managed to photograph in the tree overlooking the ford; the closest I got with my 'teeny-weeny' camera was 60-70m)