What a brilliant day! It started with a sound night's sleep--at last--with all rising at 03.00 for a slice of cold porridge mmmm! Down to the nets at 04.00 in dull, still conditions which were perfect for ringing. Image our chagrin when the first net round turned up only about 20 birds. BUT from then on things developed well with no visible migration but with birds appearing from nowhere--especially Reed Buntings--which ended the day with 93 ringed. We made steady progress until early afternoon with everyone pulling together, including ace scribe Sara, to ring and process 317 new birds of 18 species. 43 new Bluethroats is incredible by any standards, a Redstart, Blue tit and Siberian Tit ( see pic below) were all good birds--and the first 7 Lapland Buntings bode well for the coming days. Very low numbers of Meadow Pipits compared to last year may change as the days pass--but very disappointing are the numbers of Redpoll/Arctic Redpoll--especially since we were hoping to carry out some research on their DNA--maybe things will change. We managed to catch our first wader--a Little Stint --hence the title--but the other waders are proving unbelievable difficult to catch although a couple of Temmink's Stint's, Curlew Sandpipers and Spotted Redshank are exercising our minds about the best way to catch them.
On a domestic front, Kate's place is still standing, and as yet we haven't wrecked either the dishwasher or the washing machine--and meals are yummy!
A Siberian Tit which gave Dave a nice warm feeling.......
Very few of the Willow Warblers show characteristics of the 'acredula' race which are supposed to breed here. However, these two Wibblies show some of the differences--the bird on the right could be a juvenile from my home patch--but the one on the left shows some of the greyness associated with this race.
See http://birdringers.blogspot.co.uk for more information.
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