Alice and I had another back to back ringing session at the pools at the Obs on Saturday and Sunday, and managed to ring another 75 birds over both days.
Saturday dawned with full cloud cover, with a light north-easterly breeze. We got the nets up in the half-light, and once again played the 'Latvian love song' on the MP3 players to attract Redwings.
Starling numbers seemed to be back up near 10,000 again, so numbers definitely fluctuate on a daily basis. There wasn't as much moving on 'vis' as yesterday, and numbers of birds moving progressively decreased from the peak on Thursday (15th). Of note we had 123 Redwings east and 250 Jackdaws west.
We ringed 37 birds as follows (recaptures in brackets):
Redwing - 8
Cetti's Warbler - 1
Goldfinch - 5
Blue Tit - 3 (1)
Greenfinch - 11
Wren - 2
Long-tailed Tit - 4 (3)
Fieldfare - 1
Goldcrest - 1
Chiffchaff - 1
Sunday morning was nearly a carbon copy of Saturday, from both the weather, birding and ringing perspective, except that for most of the morning it was virtually calm.
The first bird that I recorded Sunday morning, as I drove on site was a Barn Owl perched on a fence, that melted away into the dark as I got close. We had a similar lack of birds on vis, with just 38 Redwings, 29 Greenfinches, three Grey Wagtails and four Chaffinches heading east.
There was certainly more Pink-footed Geese around, and birds were lifting from their roost on the river, others were heading north to feeding areas in the wider Morecambe Bay, and some were arriving from the south (Ribble Estuary?), and in total we had 2,020 birds.
We ringed 38 birds as follows (recaptures in brackets):
Wren - 1
Long-tailed Tit - 6 (1)
Redwing - 4
Greenfinch - 22
Goldfinch - 2
Blue Tit - 1
Reed Bunting - 1
It's looking unsettled this coming week, with a return to Atlantic weather systems, so getting out, and the quality of the birding could be 'iffy', but I will keep you posted if I do.
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