Saturday, 20 July 2013

Over Two Dozen Nettle Creepers

Ian and I were ringing at one of the reedbeds this morning and driving down to the site in calm conditions with clear skies we spotted a member of the local constabulary demonstrating how stretched, hard working, not able to move because of paperwork, value for taxpayers money he was by sleeping in his van!!! I had another example of this a couple of years ago where a literally 'sleeping policeman' was blocking my access to the obs and I had to tap on the window (tempted to bang) and ask him to move! Anyway, on with the birds.

At first it seemed as though we wouldn't catch too well this morning as it 'felt' quiet and on the second round (usually the busiest) we only caught a couple of birds. However it picked up and we ringed 43 birds as follows (recaptures in brackets):

Dunnock - 1
Whitethroat - 23 (2)
Reed Warbler - 2 (2)
Blackcap - 1
Robin - 1
Sedge Warbler - 3
Greenfinch - 10
Reed Bunting - 1 (1)
Song Thrush - 1 

 Greenfinch

Of course the 'nettle creepers' in my title refers to the Whitethroats that we caught and since the 7th July we have ringed 39 Whitethroats at this site!

Whitethroat

From a birding perspective it was fairly quiet and my notebook records four Lapwings, four Linnets, two Sand Martins, a Snipe, a Stock Dove, seven Goldfinches and a Little Egret.

 Sedge Warbler

It's looking a tad breezy for some more ringing at the obs tomorrow, other than for Swallows at the roost in the evening, so it will be a look on the sea for me I think.

2 comments:

Warren Baker said...

How does 39 Whitethroats compare to previous years at this time Hairy :-)

The Hairy Birder said...

It compares very well Warren, although I don't have any figures to hand to give a comparison. For the past couple of years they seem to have been really striggling with teh wet summers but this year the 'heat wave' has been perfect timing for them. We're also getting the impression that it has been a good breeding season for warblers in general and at the end of August I'll have a look at the figures and compare them with previous years.

Cheers,

Seumus