The thermometer definitely read minus this morning but the Tree Sparrows and Chaffinch also owed us a ringing session after we fed them diligently for many weeks while the wind and rain held us at bay.
I was ten minutes late for the session, not like me, but ice on the road at Out Rawcliffe slowed me down, then a stop to admire a Tawny Owl put a couple more minutes on the journey. Not to worry, what are trainees for if not to carry poles and put up nets on frosty mornings? Picture courtesy of http://www.bto.org/
You just have to hand it to those Tree Sparrows, 200 to 300 coming to the food for several weeks and how many did we catch? Eleven! They were there of course the multitude, flying up and down the hedgerow, across the field, back and forth, in and out, just generally taking the Michael out of the ringers, but it wouldn’t be any fun if they made it too easy for us would it?
The Chaffinch proved a little easier to catch with 18 new ones, proving as we thought that the turnover of feeding birds has been higher than the regular count suggests.
Other birds caught included 2 Blackbirds, 1 Coal Tit and 3 Dunnock, the remainder of the catch several each of Blue Tit and Great Tit with a single troglodyte.
Birding was fairly quiet this morning, the highlight being possibly the circa 80 Fieldfare that hung about “our” hedgerow, one of the few remaining to have any number of berries to keep thrushes interested. 3 Yellowhammers put in a brief appearance away from the nets but those are usually caught into the New Year when natural food becomes scarce.
Raptors were represented by 2 Kestrels and the now obligatory Buzzard.
A couple of Roe Deer put in a distant appearance in the stubble field opposite our cars, the same field that held a couple of hundred noisy Jackdaws and about 15 Corn Buntings.
On the way home a daytime Little Owl provided a perfect end to a fruitful and enjoyable morning.
