Yesterday at the 'Obs'

The forecast for yesterday was marginal to say the least, but at this time of year you can't afford to miss any opportunity to get out ringing. Gary, Ian and I met at Rossall School at 6.00 a.m. and put the nets up. They were billowing a little and possibly just enough to make them obvious so that birds avoided them. There was also very little on the move and the combination of these two factors probably led to the poor catch that we had.

In total we ringed only 8 birds and these were Great Tit, Robin, 2 Whitethroats, Dunnock, 2 Swallows and a Blue Tit. On the positive side we did identify another net ride that will cut through a hedgerow hopefully intercepting any birds that move along it.

 Dunnock

Great Tit

Robin

Swallow

Whitethroat

As I mentioned before the 'vis' was quiet and all we had going over were 3 Grey Wagtails, 2 Linnets and 4 Meadow Pipits. There were 60 House Martins and 80 Swallows around but it was very difficult to tell whether they were moving through or not, as they seemed to be moving round the site in a feeding circuit.

I came across the critter below in my garden this afternoon and it is an Elephant Hawkmoth caterpillar. A cracking little 'beasty' and even more of a cracker as a moth!