Wha' d'ya know!

It's Friday and it's piddling down and blowing stiffley and there's no ringing today. Answer - do the weekly blog update. It has been frosty most nights (down to -6C), sunny one day, cloudy the next; not the best ringing/migration weather.

The Coal Tits seem to have passed on, the Goldcrests, too, and there were far less Blackbirds evident around the house. Lots of Blue Tits at the moment - but they're canny wee birds and skip over the tops of the nets. The Redwings continue to visit our neighbours tall Cotoneaster (hence the numbers ringed), having abandoned our Holly, which is now 99.9% devoid of berries.

Redwing (adult, December)

There have been six or more Blackcaps in the garden, five of whom now have bling on their right leg. That's 12 trapped so far this month, all of which have to be immigrants from the continent. This follows the three week gap between emigrants and immigrants that was also evident at my old ringing site that I ran for twenty years in north Bedfordshire where Blackcap was the top (most numerous) species ringed. To assist them through the winter, I put out soaked sultanas on the (three) bird tables as well as the usual seed varieties. 

Need to take these wee things on AE with smaller f-stop

Dunnocks have been 'showing off' lately, with 'beta' males trying to muscle in on the flirting. The Herring Gulls are back and their friends joined them this week on the factory roofs visible from our kitchen and landing windows. At least we haven't got the LBBGs back yet; they have a habit of sitting on our chimney pots and yelling down the flues whilst we're having breakfast! Perhaps they're at Anza, Morocco. See here

A surprise bird was the juvenile Piedy Wag that was low in the net in the orchard. They are usually caught across the lawn during or soon after nesting.

8th-14th Dec. A total of 48 different birds, 28 newbies given bling, plus 20 re-visiting from previous weeks, some more than once (not counted). 

Goldcrest (1)

Blue Tit 4 (5)

Great Tit 1 (1)

Coal Tit (1)

Long-tailed Tit (3)

Blackcap 4 (1)

Blackbird 1

Redwing 4

Robin 1 (2)

Dunnock 1 (4)

House Sparrow 1 (2)

Pied Wagtail 1

Greenfinch 2

Goldfinch 6

Siskin 1

Bullfinch 1