Green Day

This isn't a reference to that pretty awful American pseudo punk band (give me the Damned, Clash, Stranglers, Cure etc any day), but to the number of Greenfinches that I ringed at the southern end of the obs today. Following on from Sunday it was another morning conducive to operating mist nets with calm conditions and clear skies at dawn. It was obvious it wasn't going to be a morning for grounded migrants, but rather what I could pull down with MP3s.

 Another Greenfinch

After two days of good vis conditions it wasn't a surprise that the vis was a little thin today and included 82 Meadow Pipits, 125 Greenfinch, three Chaffinch, ten Alba Wags, 1,135 Pink-footed Geese, two Grey Wags, two Siskins, two Great Spotted Woodpeckers and a Goldfinch.

As I said before it wasn't a morning for grounded migrants and the only birds that I could say that were truly grounded were a male Stonechat, a Coal Tit and a Reed Bunting.

The main feature of the morning, and the bit that kept me really busy, was the ringing and I processed 64 new birds as follows:

Greenfinch - 53
Goldfinch - 2
Blue Tit - 1
Robin - 1
Meadow Pipit - 4
Great Tit - 2
Dunnock - 1

The Greenfinch really are a mystery. If I didn't have an MP3 playing I would see very few on vis, but as soon as I put the MP3 with their song on they drop from the skies! I can only conclude that they are flying over but at a height beyond the range of our eyes and hearing.

The wind is going to be ESE for the next couple of days and pick up a bit. I will probably struggle to get out tomorrow as I have a meeting to attend in the morning and then for the rest of the week I have some surveying to do. So it might be weekend before I am back at the obs.