...but alas a quiet one, was the text that I sent to members of our ringing group after Alice and I packed up this morning! We arrived on site at the reedbed/scrub at the Nature Park just before 6:00 a.m. and it was clear, crystal clear in fact, and my first thought was that it would be another 'clear-out' type of morning, and I was right.
However, we put the nets up and kept everything crossed, but after a couple of hours we had only ringed eight birds as follows, so we packed up:
Reed Warbler -4
Goldfinch - 1
Greenfinch - 2
Dunnock - 1
The birding was even quieter, if that is possible, and I suppose the birding highlight were the three Tree Pipits that we had head south on vis, and they were my first of the autumn. About 5,000 Starlings exited their roost at first light, a Sparrowhawk flew past carrying prey, and that really was about it. Let's hope that it's better tomorrow!
On this date in 1992, c. 2,000 Swallows roosted close to this site, and we managed to ring sixty, and that was a fairly quiet Swallow roost session for those days, but I'd be happy to have a catch like that now!
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