Bright and breezy

A gorgeous, bright, sunny day today and if it wasn't for the cold, brisk wind it would have been glorious!   With the nets that could be opened waving around in the wind it was no surprise that the birds which were caught were all in the first hour of daylight before the sun hit them and made them very visible; they did however include a stunning male Firecrest (the fifth of the year to be ringed) and another Yellowhammer.

Firecrest and Yellowhammer

 

There was only a small trickle of birds passing over the station through the morning which included 16 Common Crossbills with a few other Finches, two White Wagtails, c40 Jackdaws and a Dunnock which flew over very high up giving me a few seconds of 'what on earth is that?' when I picked it up (or words to that effect!).    The Eiders kicked off a bit today with c3,000 heading NW through the day - although this is an underestimate; they couldn't persuade much else to join them with the exception of two Pintail, two Wigeon, three Barnacle Geese and three Mute Swans.

 

A Woodlark was around the station in the afternoon while a group of five Common Cranes flew south out at sea and a lonely random Snipe was in the middle of a lonely random ploughed field!

This female Common Scoter preferred the company of these handsome drake Eiders while a drake Common Scoter looked on with envy from the water!