Sutton Bonington, Sunday 22 January

Alex, Gary and I netted the feeding site this morning. We were joined by Edward Winfield who came along to see what ringing was all about. It was –3 Celsius when we got to the site and only +2C when we left, so a cold and mostly overcast morning with the breeze picking up a little about 0930 to add to the wind chill!

We put up the usual nets plus an additional net near the Pheasant feeder at the other end of the field. Catching was steady throughout and better than recent visits but still no large numbers despite the freezing conditions.

We ended with 42 birds including 21 retraps made up of (new/retrap): Blackbird 1/1, Dunnock 2/9, Robin 6/4, Great Tit 0/2, Blue Tit 1/2, Goldcrest 0/1, Goldfinch 6/0, Chaffinch 1/2, Yellowhammer 3/0, House Sparrow 1/0. The oldest retraps were from last winter.

Kev

 House Sparrow (A. Phillips)