Wild Weekend

Had planned a busy bird ringing weekend. I was going to check out a Reed Bunting flock at the Manderson Trust Fishery this morning (there are around 30 birds present there, plus a few Yellowhammers), but pouring rain stopped play.

At about 9.30 the rain had stopped, so my Trainer, Ian, came round, and we put up a couple of mist nets in the garden instead. Not particularly productive, but we did get:

Blackbird 1 (+3 retraps)
Starling 1
Great Tit 2 (+ 2 retraps)
Chaffinch 1
Dunnock (1 retrap)

The Starling was definitely the star bird. A lovely male (5).

Hopefully get out to the Fishery later in the week to have a look at those buntings!


Ian and I had also planned to join the Wash Wader Ringing Group on a Cannon Net catch at Snettisham early tomorrow (Sunday) morning, but the forecast is not good, so that's been cancelled. A real shame, but that's the nature of studying wild bird populations!

Nesting Birds

I've had a couple of reports during the last week or so of nesting birds in the village. At least two people have told me about collared doves on eggs (no surprises there then!), while woodpigeons seem to be getting frisky too!

Things on the nesting front will be hotting up in the coming weeks, so drop me a line if you know of any nesting birds in or around Over village.

Cheers,

Graham

grahambirdringer@btinternet.com