19-09-2013

A very different morning to yesterday after north westerly winds and a full moon through the night. From leaving the house in the early hours birds were calling from left, right and centre and the nets were erected.

Ironically these conditions are unfavourable back home on the east coast of England and it makes a nice change to get excited over north westerlies.

Due to our efforts being concentrated on ringing good numbers of birds our visible migration counts would not have scratched the surface of what went over or through the garden so we have left of our feable notes off the blog for today.

Most certainly the highlight of the day arrived in the form of a Nutcracker that was seen by Louis, Benny and Hans and heard around the garden by us guys in the ringing shed. It was last seen to depart from the garden and flew back north so it may not be the last we see or hear of it for that matter and from what I can gather from Louis and from what Craig has told me there are plenty more to come.......fingers crossed!!!!

Apart from Hans and Benny this were the closest we got to seeing a Nutcracker in the flesh.

After seeing the Nutcracker Hans and Benny gave a ringing demonstration to a class of children and from the look of the children's  faces they appeared to be thoroughly enjoying themselves getting the opportunity to release birds and chasing butterflies around the garden. It appeared the Sylvia Warblers enjoyed themselves also with a bit of tie die work on Benny's bright white t-shirt!

In the afternoon Hugh stayed with the nets and continued to ring. I decided to cut back the willows along the entrance track to increase the number of phylloscs that are caught in the nets along this willow corridor. I was joined by Louis and Rael whos help i am extremely thankful for and a great job was done by us all. Now only time will tell if our efforts have paid off.

Birds ringed today include a total of 332 bird of the following species:

Tree Pipit 1
Wren 3
Dunnock 7
Robin 215
Common Redstart 11
Marsh Wabler 1

1k Marsh Warbler ringed & ready for release, Photo by Jack Ashton-Booth

Lesser Whitethroat 1
Common Whitethroat 4
Garden Warbler 8
Blackcap 21
Chiffchaff 48
Willow Warbler 3
Spotted Flycatcher 2
Tree Sparrow 5
Chaffinch 2

Best wishes Hugh, Rael and Jack