A Misty March Morn

It was a bit of a pea-souper this morning, quite a thick mist and in fact more like a fog at 6am, but on the strength of the forecast for any poor visibility to improve early, Will and I went to Out Rawcliffe for a netting session. The murkiness took a while to clear with our normal optimism for catching or even seeing birds decidedly poor at even 0630, but as the sun rose so did our spirits, and gradually the bird numbers.

In fact we caught 21 birds, not bad for a ringing session in the middle of nowhere on a misty March morning. New birds, 7 Meadow Pipit, 7 Goldfinch, 2 Lesser Redpoll, 1 Siskin, 1 Chaffinch, 1 Long-tailed Tit and 1 Blue Tit. The single recapture was a Long-tailed Tit.

Lesser Redpoll
Goldfinch
Meadow Pipit

Meadow Pipits arrived slowly this morning, all from the south east and heading north and west, in small parties of up to 8 individuals; our 4 hours gave a total of c80.

Other “vis” came in the form of 6 Lesser Redpoll, 8 Siskin, 3 Fieldfare, 4 Alba Wagtail and 30 Curlew, with the normal residents of 2 Corn Bunting, 6 Linnet, 2 Reed Bunting, 4 Buzzard, 5 Roe Deer and good numbers of Brown Hare.

A visit to the farm really wouldn’t be complete without checking on the Little Owls at last year’s Kestrel nest where I thought the owls had possession of the hole, but today I found both a prospecting Kestrel and a loitering Stock Dove. A little more negotiation to take place I think.

Little Owl
Kestrel