Sutton Bonington, Sunday 20 December

The forecast was suggesting it would be too windy today and when the wind whistling and rain beating against the window woke me up at 0430 I thought I would be calling it off. But a couple of hours later the rain had stopped and the wind was considerably lighter but still blowing.

So Gary, Sue, Duncan and I met for another ringing session at Sutton Bonington. The nets went up quickly in the less than ideal breeze and the Redwing tape was deployed again and produced 2 birds on the first round, along with a couple of Chaffinch.

The wind picked up as the morning progressed and certainly hampered catching which was further affected when the sun came up (yes, really the sun, long time no see). We decided to give in to the elements by 1030 and finished on just 11 birds including 4 retraps.

The species totals were (new/retrap): Great Tit 0/1, Blue Tit 0/3, Chaffinch 2/0, Goldfinch 2/0, Greenfinch 1/0, Redwing 2/0. The retraps were all recently ringed birds. There were a decent number off birds around including a few Yellowhammers along with a few Fieldfare and a Buzzard.

Kev