Drove over to Chris's winter farm ringing site near Melton Mowbray. I was about four miles away from the farm when he rang me to say the weather was bad and he probably wasn't going to bother! It was a bit late by then, however, so we persevered, and eventually trapped nearly 80 birds.
The weather was a bit strange, being alternately misty, drizzly and just dull. We had to close and re-open the nets several times to avoid birds getting damp and cold. Quite different conditions to what I've ringed in before at Ferry Meadows (in spring/summer).
A few interesting bits and pieces included two continental male Greenfinches (big, heavy and long-winged), a party of Long-tailed Tits and a retrap female Great Spotted Woodpecker. There were plenty of Blue and Great Tits to have a pop at me, but, as every trainee knows, they're good practice and the fingers feel much better after a soak in TCP...
No comments:
Post a Comment