Cabaret and Flammea

It was our first ringing session at Rossall School this morning as Craig, Ian and I met at 5.45 a.m. at the 'obs'. Four nets were hurriedly put up and the Redpoll tape was played in anticipation of tape luring a few Lesser Redpolls down. It was very clear this morning and flat calm, and it was obvious there was going to be very little grounded, if at all.

The MP3 powered Redpoll didn't disappoint and a first check of the 'Redpoll' net revealed eight Lessers caught. By the end of the morning we had ringed 26 Lesser Redpolls in total. Interestingly in addition to the birds ringed we had a further 91 Lesser Redpolls go over heading north and to be honest with you as we were busy ringing there was probably nearer twice this many.

Lesser Redpoll - adult male

On our third net round we also caught an adult female Common Redpoll amongst the Lessers. Having been handling Lessers all morning this bird stuck out like a sore thumb. A big pale denizen of the north. It was interesting to compare her biometrics with those of the Lessers and she was longer winged and heavier than any of the male Lessers.

Other birds on 'vis' included 45 Meadow Pipits, Siskin, Tree Pipit, Great Spotted Woodpecker, four Linnets, five Sand Martins, three Swallows and two female Sparrowhawks.

Common Redpoll - adult female

There were few grounded migrants around but we did manage to ring single Willow Warbler, Blackcap and Chiffchaff. The only other grounded migrant was a male Wheatear towards the sea wall.

Willow Warbler

Back home late morning I checked my moth trap from last night and I had caught just single Herald, five Hebrew Characters, Early Grey and two Common Quakers.

Common Quaker

Early Grey

Hebrew Character