Some might call it desperation...

...and others might call it science and dedication! Despite not getting to bed until 1.00 a.m. this morning I still set my alarm for 06:30, got up, listened as the "rain auditioned at my window" (Marillion reference there!) and then went back to bed. When I got up again a couple of hours later it was still raining, a carbon copy of yesterday.

'Her indoors', or should I say Gail, had made a bird cake last week and I had been putting it out in the garden on the ground feeder and in a disabled drop trap to tempt a few Starlings in. Today I decided to set the drop trap and see if I could ring a few Starlings. "You must have been desperate" I can hear some of you shout! Anyway, an hour or two later not a single Starling was ringed!

This afternoon between the showers I went to Rawcliffe Moss to feed the Tree Sparrows and I was hoping to have a walk round between the showers and do a bit of birding. Typically as I set off down the track the heavens opened and that put paid to my afternoons birding! Just like on Friday there were a good number of Tree Sparrows at the feeding station and I counted 207, exactly the same as Friday. There didn't seem quite as many Chaffinches, but some of these could have already set off to their roost, and Blackbirds were similar with ten along the hedge. Only one Yellowhammer this afternoon, but I did have six Corn Buntings feeding on spilt grain on the concrete apron in front of the farm buildings.

I am not sure whether I will get out much in the week as the weather looks absolutely atrocious, but I will try my best.

I haven't any relevant pictures to illustrate today's blog so below is a picture of a Lincoln Sparrow that I ringed at Tommy Thompson Park Bird Research Station in Toronto in 2005. Quite a dull bird you might think, but it does have some nice subtle plumage markings.