Will and I met up at Out Rawcliffe this morning hoping for another decent catch of warblers to boost the already good numbers for the year. Prior to today, and after a worrying and slow start to the summer catches, our Willow Warbler total here for the year stood at 82 and our Whitethroats at a convenient and precise 100 birds.
Even this morning the rain and cloud of the past three days still hung over the moss as patches of drizzle and rain headed inland towards Bowland where the low cloud obscured the topmost fells. Watching the clouds roll in we put up a less than ideal length of netting, a strategy which proved of mixed success when we later found it easy to close the few nets for a while to let the drizzle pass over, but which resulted in a slow, interrupted and frustrating morning.
Our catch was pretty poor with just 14 new birds and 5 recaptures. New: 6 Whitethroat, 5 Willow Warbler and 1 each of Reed Warbler, Goldfinch and Blackbird. Recaptures: One each of Goldfinch, Dunnock, Whitethroat, Willow Warbler, Chiffchaff and Blackbird. The Blackbird recapture was ringed here as a nestling on 27 July, so we know that at least one of the four nestlings ringed that day survived to fledging stage.
After today here our 87 new Willow Warbler catches break down to 47 adults, 29 juveniles and 11 nestlings. Whitethroat totals now stand at 106 birds - 28 adults, 74 juveniles and 4 nestlings.
The poor visibility also denied us much opportunity for birding but we clocked up 80 Swallows, 8 House Martin, a post summer flock of 70 Woodpigeons, 4 Corn Bunting, 8 Mistle Thrush, 30+ Goldfinch and 17 Linnets. Looking out for raptors realised 1 Kestrel, 1 Sparrowhawk, 2 Buzzard and the inevitable Little Owl, seeing us off its patch once again.
If it’s fine in the morning we’ll try again.
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