Sunday 8 February 2009

Red Sky In The Morning - Ringers Warning, 8th February 2009


After Phil and I had put the nets up in the dark we were greeted with a fantastic morning sky and it was indeed a ringers warning as we caught very little! It has been over a month since we did any ringing at Moss House Farm and surely the Tree Sparrows would have forgotten what a mist net and poles looks like?! Wrong. Not a single Tree Sparrow caught and only 13 birds ringed. However, our catch did include Fieldfare, Song Thrush, Chaffinch and err Starling; all nice birds - sort of!



A couple of shots of one of the male Chaffinch we ringed this morning.




Song Thrush and a couple of pictures of a first winter female Starling showing its juvenile tail.

After mentioning yesterday that I had only had a total of 3 Corn Buntings over the past couple of weeks it was pleasing to note a flock of 70 perching on top of a hawthorn hedge and feeding in some spoiled crops with 40 Reed Buntings! What else can I say that we haven't had much of recently!

Back home I had a Chiffchaff in the garden this afternoon. Gail found it and said to me "what's that funny little small bird flitting around in the grass?" I looked up expecting it to be a Dunnock, but was surprised to see it was a Chiffchaff. It then moved into some Willows and flew off next door. A nice way to end the day.

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