Friday Afternoon and Freezing Fog, 28th & 29th November 2008

On Friday afternoon I finished early to go and feed at you know where; Rawcliffe Moss. Besides seed feed I have been putting apples down at the feeding station from my garden and these are now starting to pull a few thrushes in. There were 21 Blackbirds in the hedge next to the feeding station and I think it was a combination of the Hawthorn berries and the apples. A lot of the apples have been half eaten and by the marks it is possible to tell that they have been eaten by avian feeders rather than mammalian.

Tree Sparrow numbers remain similar and I counted 217 today. Yellowhammer and Corn Buntings are now joining them and there were 4 and 1 respectively.

Saturday morning dawned with freezing fog and I had arranged to meet Craig at Moss House Farm for a ringing session. We went in the hope that when the sun got up it would 'burn' the fog off. Unfortunately it just froze the nets and we packed up after a couple of hours. We managed to ring 18 birds including 10 Tree Sparrows, 4 Chaffinch, Robin, Blackbird and 2 Redwings. A picture of the Blackbird we ringed can be found below. It is a 1st winter bird based on the contrast between the new inner and old brown greater coverts.



As it was so foggy very few birds were recorded from a birding perspective. We could hear 'Pink-feet' calling but couldn't see them and it was very difficult to estimate the number of birds present at the feeding station, because again we couldn't see them!

At least we managed to get out and ring some more Tree Sparrows. At the end of the year I will report the ringing totals for the site here.