There was just a slight frost this morning on the car windscreen but within half a minute of starting the car the film of ice cleared; I set off to meet Will and Craig for a ringing session in Will’s garden at Catterall with hope of the first catch of March. Along the road the morning bode well for a few birds when a Barn Owl flew ahead of me in the half light of Hambleton village then disappeared over nearby fields.
By 0715 the 60 foot net was up and we began to catch finches as the Siskin arrived first, followed by the larger finches. This morning we caught 37 birds, 25 new and 12 recaptures. New birds, all but one of them finches: 16 Siskin, 6 Chaffinch, 1 Greenfinch, 1 Goldfinch and 1 Blue Tit. Recaptures were: 3 Siskin, 2 Chaffinch, 2 Dunnock, 4 House Sparrow and 1 Great Tit.
Our overall finch count today was of 60 Siskin, 60 Chaffinch, 6 Greenfinch, 6 Goldfinch and 2 Brambling. So the numbers of new Siskins meant a decline from recent catches of 30ish birds, as did the three recaptures of the same species; these figures plus Will’s daily observations, suggest that Siskins are still moving through and probably north but perhaps in lesser numbers. We still had low numbers of Goldfinch, with no Lesser Redpoll today, with numbers of Bramblings now unlikely to increase.
Other birds this morning: 22 Curlew, 15 Fieldfare, 8 Cormorant over, 300 Starling, 2 Nuthatch, 2 Treecreeper, 8 Jackdaw, 2 Song Thrush, 80 Wood Pigeon.
It was a cold morning but once the sun rose and the spring air warmed up the Buteo theme of last week resumed when 6 Buzzards appeared circling together over adjacent fields and woods as they searched out thermals on which to ride.
A successful if fairly quiet session but its always nice to start the month with a few new birds.
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