Holme Pierrepont, Sunday 28 August

Gary, Duncan, Sue, Tom and I ran another ringing session at the Blott’s end of Holme Pierrepont. It had been difficult picking the best day to go as the forecast had been changing by the hour in the preceding days but based on the day that suited most people and with fingers crossed for the weather we went for Sunday.

As it turned out the weather was perfect for netting, at least to start, with overcast skies and no wind. We set 10 nets in the usual places and extracted 35 birds on the way back to the base after putting up the last couple of nets! Catching remained brisk but we always had a wary eye on the, mostly, very dark skies. At around 1100 we did have a few spots of rain and with the breeze picking up a little we opted not to ride our luck any further and took down.

We ended with an excellent catch of 124 including 17 retraps, made up of (new/retrap): Blackbird 1/0, Song Thrush 1/0, Wren 0/2, Dunnock 2/1, Robin 8/1, Blackcap 30/1, Garden Warbler 1/0, Whitethroat 6/0, Lesser Whitethroat 2/0, Chiffchaff 22/4, Willow Warbler 2/0, Reed Warbler 13/0, Blue Tit 2/2, Great Tit 3/0, Long-tailed Tit 2/6, Bullfinch 1/0, Goldfinch 6/0, Reed Bunting 5/0. The oldest retrap was a Long-tailed Tit from 2012.

A little busy to see much overhead but Tom did spot a Bittern taking off from one of the reed beds.

Kev

 adult Whitethroat (S. Lakeman)