Holme Pierrepont, Sun 15 Aug

The morning began with a flurry of activity and by about 8am we had caught 44 birds. After that things quietened down almost as quickly and soon after 11am we took down, having processed 65 birds (55 new and 10 retrap).

And not only did the first round produce good numbers, but also a nice surprise in the form of an adult Grasshopper Warbler. This was our first for the year and the first Autumn bird for a while. We can only speculate whether it was a local bird or a migrant.

We also caught a very young Wood Pigeon, right above the mixed warbler tape. What a handsome bird...

Well, a ringing tick is a ringing tick I suppose. But out of these two I think I know who was more impressed.

The rest of the catch was a good mixture of migrants and residents with Sedge Warblers particularly obvious (7 caught) and a couple of Bullfinches must have only just left the nest. Not much of interest seemed to be flying around but we did see a single Curlew.

Pete