It was cold Saturday morning when I headed off to my Bowland feeding station for a ringing session with Alice, in fact my car thermometer registered -6 Celsius at one point! The road conditions were pretty awful, with frozen, slippery, un-gritted lanes. In fact, Alice didn't feel comfortable driving in such conditions and returned home. I turned the traction control off on my car, as it was driving me mad, and preferred to rely on my own 'feel' for the conditions, and progress was much better.
I arrived at the feeding station under 7 oktas cloud cover and it was flat calm. I decided that I wouldn't bother putting a net up, I'd just feed and head back home instead. However, the sun came out and because there was absolutely no wind it felt rather pleasant, so I decided to put just one net up and limit my ringing to just a couple of hours.
I ringed 38 birds as follows (recaptures in brackets):
Coal Tit - 5 (4)
Great Tit - 9 (1)
Blue Tit - 13
Robin - 3
Chaffinch - 7
Nuthatch - 1 (1)
Other than the birds that I ringed, and others at the feeding station, it was rather quiet. In fact, the only other species of note were all heard. I heard a couple of Ravens calling, and a noisy Jay, plus a Tawny Owl and Fieldfare.
The weather is looking to be set fair for the coming week, although cold, so I am hopeful of getting a few surveys in, and perhaps a bit of birding/ringing.
Over on the right I have updated the ringing totals for Fylde Ringing Group for the year. With a ringing session already in the bag, it won't be long before January 2021's totals appear there.
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