Prunesville

Not much going on in the ringing line but plenty of other activity. Have tried my best to catch a few birds the last two days but the weather conspired against me. Friday it was relatively calm (for coastal West Somerset) but mighty sunny, with a brilliant, clear light - piss poor for disguising the nets. Today the forecast was all wrong; the S/SW gentle winds promised were in fact moderate SE at ground level thats blows into all my net lanes, followed by some rougher weather mid-morning. It was also our coldest night so far this autumn at +1C.

The most noticeable thing over the two days was the steady increase in Starlings, most heading west to the hills (Exmoor, Bodmin, Dartmoor). Parties increased from the earlier 10-25 to a more vigorous 40-150, and I counted over 500 in the space of an hour from 8:00 to 9:00 (we're still on BST/CET until tonight). Other birds around this morning included a Green Woodpecker, a Little Egret, a Raven, the usual 100+ each of Rooks and Jackdaws, a resident party of ~20 Siskin augmented with twice as many passing over, 5 Skylarks, at least 3 Meadow Pipits, a Grey Wagtail, several Moorhen and a couple of squealing Water Rails in the stream bed (which has steep sides and not the best place to try and trap them). There were several Blackbirds scattered around the site, going by the noise as they exited their roosting spots; so far, no collective roost. The Black-headed Gulls are now back and some 150 joined the local Herring Gulls across the fields.


It wasn't all bad - if you exclude the UK ringers' "bread 'n butter" of Prunella modularis

Birds caught:
Blue Tit 1 (1) - both birds of the year
Coal Tit (1) - a bird of the year
Long-tailed Tit (1) - a fully moulted juvenile
Blackcap 1 - adult female (above)
Wren 1 - adult male
Blackbird 1 - juv female, shorter wing = local??
Dunnock 2 (2) - a male from last March and ...

Nothing doing tomorrow as I've got to cut the hedges (interferes with net guys so the whole set-up has been taken in for now). The next window of decent opportunity looks like a week away. Maybe the thrushes will have arrived by then? Slik er livet