Double Trouble

Ian and I ventured forth on to Rawcliffe Moss this morning for a ringing session at the feeding station. It was quite a dreary morning with full cloud cover and a light-ish east-southeasterly wind. As we were putting the nets up we could hear three male Tawny Owls calling from different woods with just one female responding.

As of late it was fairly quiet and we processed 9 new birds as follows (recaptures in brackets):

Chaffinch - 1
Yellowhammer - 2
Great Tit - 1 (2)
Tree Sparrow - 1
Reed Bunting - 2
Great Spotted Woodpecker - 2
Blue Tit - (3)

 Blue Tit

Chaffinch

Great Tit

Reed Bunting

Yellowhammer

Both the 'Great Spots' were male and we were quite surprised to catch two. We ringed the first bird and when we went round the nets again there was a Great Spot in the net. We expected it to be the same bird heading back to the feeders but we were completely surprised when it was unringed. Both of these birds were a handful and I have just counted 27 abrasions on my hand from the 'peckers!

Great Spot giving me grief!

The only way I could photograph it

There were about 200 Tree Sparrows coming to feed, but nowhere near our nets, with about 20 Chaffinch and 5 Yellowhammers. We had 17 Corn Buntings fly over and that was about it.

This afternoon I finished off my nest boxes and they just need proofing this week and hopefully I'll get them up next weekend.