Flintham, 28-30 December 2014

Every winter or so the weather is spot on for orchard thrush ringing. It needs to be freezing, preferably with snow on the ground as well as calm so that the nets aren't too visible. The harder weather makes birds 'tamer' as they search for food and grounded apples are top if the list!

The last few days of December ticked all the boxes so Ewan and I set up nets in an orchard at Flintham late in the afternoon on the 28th. Straight away we caught an adult female Sparrowhawk as the sun was setting.

With David, Sam and Tom variously involved, over the next two mornings we went on to catch and ring 95 thrushes of four species (mainly Fieldfare and Blackbird), but also species I don't catch regularly like Coal Tit, Mistle Thrush (my first in 15 years!) and Starling.

The total number of birds ringed was 105(all new), broken down as: Blackbird 30, Chaffinch 1, Coal Tit 1, Fieldfare 59, Long-tailed Tit 1, Mistle Thrush 1, Redwing 5, Robin 2, Sparrowhawk 1, Starling 2, Wood Pigeon 2.

Jim

Fieldfare (Tom Shields)

 Fieldfare (Samantha Franks)

 orchard ringing (Samantha Franks)

Mistle Thrush (Samantha Franks)