Playing Russian Roulette with the fog......

......and taking the bullet...again!

I didn't arrange to go ringing this morning as the forecast talked about the chance of some fog and I didn't want to drag the lads out for a third week running to put some nets up and take them down an hour later when frozen! Also, I went to see a band last night in Burnley and it was after midnight before I got back from the gig. However, when you have been getting up early virtually every weekend for 34 years to go birding, and within that 26 years for ringing, it's hard not to wake up at first light and feel tempted to have a peek outside at the weather. And that's exactly what I did at 6.30 a.m.

It wasn't misty, nice and clear, so it was poles on the roof-rack, nets in the boot and off to Rawcliffe Moss. I put two nets up at the feeding station and it looked good. First round eight birds and no fog, second round frozen nets and f*ck all birds! So once again I have two sixty foot North Ronaldsay nets draped over my shower rail in the bathroom!

As I said I did catch eight birds which were two Chaffinch, Tree Sparrow (only second for the year), Robin, Coal Tit, Yellowhammer and two Blackbirds. The Coal Tit was a retrap and was ringed on Rawcliffe Moss on 2nd October 2005 as an adult, which means that this bird is nearly six years old at least! Interestingly, until today we have only retrapped it twice, the last time being in February 2006!

Below are a couple of pictures of Chaffinch and Yellowhammer from this morning. The Chaffinch was a first winter and as can be seen from the second picture was replacing an outer tail feather.




It looks like the forecast for tomorrow is for it to be too windy for ringing, so it will be a mornings birding or nest box erecting for me.