Birds. What birds?

Ian and I had a very slow and predictable ringing session this morning at the Nature Park. I say 'predictable' because based on last evening's forecast we knew it would be grim! I suppose you could ask why bother if you knew it would be poor. I suppose in reality you hope that you might be wrong, or the forecast is wrong and there are some migrants about. The other reason is that when you have been at work all week you are desperate to get out! I shouldn't really grumble as I work in conservation so I get out in the field all the time!

Back to this morning. The forecast was 'bob' on when it talked about it being wet throughout the night with the rain clearing at dawn and the northwesterly wind strengthening. That's exactly what happened, and that's exactly why there were no birds this morning.

We processed 5 new birds as follows (recaptures in brackets):

Reed Warbler - 2 (1)
Sedge Warbler - 1
Robin - 1
Dunnock - 1

 Reed Warbler

As you might expect the birding was very quiet too, with just 5 Pied Wagtails, 5 House Martins and 8 Swallows over. On the pools were about a dozen Tufted Ducks and half a dozen Pochards.

 Tufted Duck

Typically it looks set to remain quite breezy throughout the weekend and then dropping, yes you've guessed it, on Tuesday when I am back at work! Let's hope the weather men and ladies get it wrong.