Sibthorpe, Monday 29 February

In order to avoid any proposals of marriage, I stayed in the garden today and did some solitary bird ringing. I opened the nets just after dawn and closed at one o’clock, by which time I had processed 68 birds (58 new, 10 retrap) and entered them all on IMPR. Sixty-six of these were all caught in the one 18m net.

Finches dominated the catch. There was only one retrap among the 32 Goldfinches, which shows how mobile they must be at the moment. Star birds, at this newish site, were a fine adult male Reed Bunting (which we’ve not seen here before) and an unusual female Greater Spotted Woodpecker (see picture). Interesting to hear what group members would age it as, i.e. first winter or adult (or not sure...)!

Totals as follows (new/retrap): Great Spotted Woodpecker 1/0, Wren 1/1, Dunnock 1/2, Robin 0/2, Blackbird 4/0, Long-tailed Tit 0/2, Blue Tit 2/0, Great Tit 0/1, Starling 1/0, House Sparrow 2/0, Tree Sparrow 1/1, Greenfinch 13/0, Goldfinch 31/1, Reed Bunting 1/0.

Jim