Slipped Up - Sort Of

I knew that if I was to go birding this morning I wouldn't have long as I had to wait in for a parcel being sent 'special delivery' for 'her indoors' 50th birthday next week. I worked out that the earliest it could arrive would be 08:30 and this meant that I would only get an hours birding in decent light. The forecast last night was for it to be a WNW wind of about 15 mph, so I decided to have a lie in until 08:00. I got up at 08:00 and there were clear skies and it was flat calm! I stepped outside my back door and immediately I could hear Meadow Pipit, Skylark, Alba Wag and Chaffinch going over. Damn, I'd slipped up!

As it was calm I decided to put a net up in the garden and see if I could catch much coming to the feeder. Every time I went out to extract what I had caught I could hear birds going over and at one stage 4 Swallows zipped through. It was too much and I decided to phone Ian up, who I knew would be at Rossall Point, and find out exactly what I had missed. Thankfully I hadn't missed much at all as it had been quite murky out in the bay early on and although birds were on the move they weren't in the numbers expected. Phew!

The net in my garden was slow and I ringed 2 Greenfinches, Robin, Goldfinch and a House Sparrow! I can't remember the last time I ringed a House Sparrow. Anyway, some of this mornings catch are illustrated below.