A Few More Green Linnets

Ian and I were at Rossall again this morning. You know the script by now; arrival at 6.30 a.m. and four nets up. It was fairly clear with a force 1-2 southeasterly wind and there was cloud cover to the north and east. The usual barrage of MP3s were turned on and once again the Greenfinch 'playback' worked best. Not long after we had switched it on Greenfinches started dropping out of the sky! First a flock of 15, then 6, then 7 and then 5! Smaller numbers moved through after that and in total my notebook details 60.

We trapped 38 new birds and 2 recaptures as follows:

Greenfinch - 30/0
Blue Tit - 5/0
Dunnock - 1/0
Robin - 1/1
Goldfinch - 1/0
Blackbird - 0/1

 Goldfinch

Greenfinch

Visible migration was more pronounced this morning and as always it was difficult to operate mist nets, ring and monitor vis at the same time. Therefore, the following totals are somewhat huge underestimates. All the vis was south unless otherwise stated.

Meadow Pipit - 114
Collared Dove - 11
Chaffinch - 13
Jackdaw - 38
Mistle Thrush - 4
Grey Wagtail - 2
Great Spotted Woodpecker - 2 (1 north)
Siskin - 2
Linnet - 2
Swallow - 11
Pink-footed Goose - 80
Alba Wag  -7
Starling - 219
Sparrowhawk - 1 (north0
Goldfinch - 12

A few Red Admiral butterflies were also 'belting' south and we had a Comma as well.

Grounded birds were few and far between other than a few Robins, Dunnocks, Blackbirds and a Reed Bunting. Ian also had 2 Chiffchaffs calling from the copse.

Ringing at the 'obs' was made more civilised this morning when Ian's other half brought us some breakfast and steaming hot coffee! Thanks Wendy!!!