Holme Pierrepont, Sunday 20 September

Gary, Duncan, Sue, Tom and I made the final visit of the season to the Blotts/A52 end of Holme Pierrepont today. The weather was calm and occasionally sunny. We erected 10 nets and had two warbler recordings playing. Catching was fairly brisk first thing but tapered off as usual as the morning progressed.

We ended on 69 birds including 5 retraps. The species totals were (new/retrap) Dunnock 2/0, Robin 5/1, Wren 1/1, Blackbird 2/0, Song Thrush 2/0, Blackcap 23/0, Chiffchaff 11/1, Goldcrest 3/0, Blue Tit 3/0, Great Tit 1/0, Long-tailed Tit 0/1, Chaffinch 1/0, Goldfinch 7/1, Reed Bunting 3/0.

The oldest retrap was the Long-tailed Tit that was ringed as a juvenile in 2013. It really does look like summer is over as only Blackcaps and Chiffchaffs were caught and a regular birdwatcher at the site said that he had not seen any other warblers there since the previous Thursday.

Kev

 young male Blackcap in body moult (T. Shields)