Still Early

Craig, Ian and I made another valiant attempt at some pre-work ringing at Rossall School this morning. It was an early start with a 0530 meet at the 'obs'. The first job was to remove the sleeping policeman, literally, who was parked in front of the gate that gives us access to the site. He was slouched down in the drivers seat, fast asleep and oblivious to the world. It's good to know that the 'boys in blue' are patrolling the streets at night keeping us safe in our homes! Policeman out of the way we could get on with putting the nets up.

We had 6 oktas cloud cover with a 1 -2 west-southwesterly wind. It was fairly mild and we were hopeful of catching a few birds. And we did just that; catch a few birds! We ringed five and retrapped two as follows: Robin - 1/0, Goldfinch - 2/0, Greenfinch - 1/0, Dunnock - 0/1 and Wren - 0/1.


We had quite a few Meadow Pipits and Pied Wagtails interested in the playback lures but they wouldn't commit themselves and jump into the net. The Meadow Pipits perched on top of the poles, on the shelf string, on the fence post behind the net, virtually anywhere other than in the net.


The Barn Owl was present again this morning and flew in with its Larus escort as usual. Vis was improved from a few days ago and we had nine Pied Wagtails, fourteen Goldfinches, 53 Meadow Pipits, two Skylarks, four Reed Buntings, two Siskins and a Snipe heading north.

I note on Bardsey today that they had five Chiffchaffs, two Blackcaps and the first Manx Shearwater so things are looking up.