Holme Pierrepont, Sun 1 Aug

Conditions were pretty perfect this morning - overcast and still, and although it seemed very quiet and birdless as we put the nets up, they soon appeared and we finished on 87, about a fifth of which were retraps. Resident species seemed a little thin on the ground and migrant warblers made up the majority of the catch. Among several Willow Warblers caught was a control.

And we caught both adults (above) and beautiful yellow-bellied juveniles (below) which were useful to compare.

 Many of the adults were in full moult as you would expect now and one Garden Warbler was particularly scruffy. In fact we wondered if the baldness on the head might have been caused by something else.

Slightly different was a very young Treecreeper that can't have fledged too far away, still with a very short bill.

Away from the nets, Common Terns and Black-headed Gulls were very noticeable and the odd House Martin overhead was about it in the sky. Perhaps most noteworthy were large numbers of Mistle Thrushes in their typical late summer flocks - one of which comprised over 20 birds. The lack of sun perhaps kept numbers of butterflies and dragonflies low, but we did find a particularly friendly Speckled Wood, modelled below by our very own Gary.
Pete