April showers

A very changeable morning kept us on our toes with a breezy first few hours limiting how many nets we could open giving way to a very calm rest of the session but this came with frequent and often prolonged showers.   This meant we definitely worked for our 17 new birds - opening the nets, closing the nets, opening them again, closing them etc. which included 2 Lesser Redpolls, a Willow Warbler and a Blackcap.

The two Lesser Redpolls

The second bird was certainly at the pale end for a Lesser but it was a bright adult male with a short wing of 71 and brown mantle - it does look at bit suspicious in this photo but I'm confident! 

(Redpolls are a nightmare!)

 

It was a generally quiet day really although there was a smart male Common Redstart in the garden, a migrant Sparrowhawk went high to the north and a big flock 1,700 Barnacle Geese came in from the north, round the point and went back west over the sea. 

 

The sea was very quiet with Louis reporting 770 Eiders and hardly anything else at all with more Easter tourists on the point than birds!