Sunday 1 April 2012

Another slow morning

It is a rare thing for me to be at home, with nowhere that I need to be, on a Saturday morning. So, I decided to take full advantage and pop the nets up. It was a grey, miserable day that was trying its best to rain (and failing thankfully) so I thought I might have more luck with the nets.

Unfortunately, I was wrong and it turned out to be another slightly too windy and, therefore, quiet day. My first bird in the nets was a re-trap male great tit that I had caught on my first garden ringing session. Surprisingly, it weighed exactly the same weight as when I caught it two weeks ago. The birds trickled into the nets slowly and blue tit and a house sparrow followed. I then caught my 12th species for the garden so far, a blackbird.
 
 
A new chaffinch came next, followed by another house sparrow. The session ended with a pair of greenfinch and I am again, not convinced I have their ages correct. My previous greenfinches generated some differences of opinion, so I shall post a couple of pics of today’s pair on here to see what people think.
Female wing
Female alula
Female tail
Male wing
Male tail
A couple of starlings and another blackbird bounced out of the Jap net which, given the total catch was so low, was paticularly frustrating. Guess I’ll just have to save them for another day!

As the wind picked up I took the nets down with a final tally of 8 birds of 6 species (new/retrap): great tit 0/1, blue tit 1/0, house sparrow 2/0, blackbird 1/0, chaffinch 1/0, greenfinch 2/0.

Ruth

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