So much for that idea!

Well, the wind got up but didn't change vector and put the little 'darlings' off! Not a Chaffinch in site!. Mind you, the temperature had risen overnight even though the wind felt raw.

I carried on regardless and had the pleasure of another COLDO, the first for this year - and number 8 in the garden net. [I use NR superfines, so larger birds tend not to stick - unless, like this one, the wind holds them in!]

Collared Dove (S. decaocto) - fully moulted wing (Feb), male.

A new boy turned up 'on the block'. This was a young, male BLABI, with the pale crescent markings all over his chest. If these markings persist after his first full moult (this takes almost 3 months from July to, maybe, October), he will be known as a "Stockamsel", a term that you don't often hear referred to nowadays. There is already a battle going on between the two resident males over a female, without this chap stirring things up.

Common Blackbird (T. merula) - 2CY male (131mm, 95.5g, 4 ogc) Feb

Another first for the year turned up today. Well, I say that, but it was the first one to hit the net. SISKI.
It turned out to be a 2CY female (71.5mm, 12.0g, zero fat); a little later, as I was extracting a King Harry, another two were buzzing nearby in the apple trees that border the net ride.

Eurasian Siskin (C. spinus) - 2CY female, 1 ogc (Feb)

My meagre efforts since the last posting are:
Collared Dove 1
Blackcap 1 - another 2cy female; 7th new bird of 2012 (makes 9)
Blackbird 1 - a new male
Robin (2) - I think these are now a pair
Dunnock (1) - getting very wary
Greenfinch 2
Goldfinch 3 (1) - r/t ringed as a 3J in early Sept.
Siskin 1

Total: 9 new (4 r/t), 8 spp.