All Green

There was a heavy frost this morning at Rossall as Ian and I put just two nets up at the 'obs'. I had to go in to work towards lunchtime so we just had a short three hour ringng session. Back at the cars having a well deserved warming cup of coffee a Barn Owl floated over the field on the other side of the central hedgerow. The Fieldfare and Redwing MP3 playback was blasting out, well not quite blasting, but it was loud enough to attract a few Fieldfares. We caught just one which was a new ringing record for the site.

We processed 56 new birds as follows (recaptures in brackets):

Fieldfare - 1
Blackbird - 3 (1)
Greenfinch - 49
Blue Tit - 1
Great Tit - 1
Chiffchaff - 1
Dunnock - (1)
Robin - (1)
Wren - (1)

 Chiffchaff

 Fieldfare

We have ringed 257 Greenfinch this autumn at the obs and haven't retrapped a single one!

From a 'vis' perspective the greatest interest of the morning were the Brambling and we had 48 go over. Other birds on the move included 4 Blackbirds, 2 Redwings, 5 Fieldfares, 3 Linnets, 3 Goldfinch, 760 Jackdaws and a Grey Wagtail.

As it was half term Ian had his little girls with him for the second half of the ringing session and they thoroughly enjoyed themselves. Three new trainees for the future? 

Starting them young. Yours truly with three future trainees!?