Holme Pierrepont, Sunday 21 August

Gary, Duncan, Sue and I held a ringing session at the Blott’s end of Holme Pierrepont today. We were also joined by Pete Leonard, it was good to do some ringing with him again. The forecast had again predicted strong winds and after Saturday’s battering I was not very optimistic about getting a decent catch. However, this time the forecast was wrong but in our favour, it was a little breezy to start and it did increase as the morning progressed but it was not as strong as forecast and with mostly overcast skies we did pretty well.

We ended with a catch of 81 including just 2 retraps, made up of (new/retrap): Blackbird 2/1, Wren 1/1, Robin 2/0, Blackcap 16/0, Garden Warbler 5/0, Whitethroat 9/0, Lesser Whitethroat 4/0, Chiffchaff 9/0, Willow Warbler 5/0, Reed Warbler 11/0, Blue Tit 4/0, Great Tit 1/0, Long-tailed Tit 6/0, Bullfinch 3/0, Reed Bunting 1/0. The oldest retrap was a Blackbird from 2010 that we had not previously recaptured.

Three Swifts passed overhead and a quite a few hirundines. A couple of Oystercatchers and a Greenshank flew over and the Goldfinch flock visiting the thistle patches numbered well over 100 at times.

Kev

This Speckled Wood was one of very few butterflies that battled to get going in the cool conditions. (Sue Lakeman)