I did not think I would manage to get a team together for a session on Sunday but Jim said he would come along and others added their name to the list so I soon had a team of 6, including Duncan just back from Shetland.
I said I did not think we would catch much and personally would have been happy with anything over 20. The forecast was for still, sunny conditions so I thought we would be taking down early because of the heat, if the previous day was anything to go by it would reach the high twenties. The forecast was wrong, it did start still and sunny but as the morning went on and the temperature started to rise some broken cloud came along and pegged the temperature back to the mid-twenties - crazy I know but this was an October ringing session!
We started to catch well and it continued throughout the morning, we ended with 74 birds including 20 retraps. The species we caught most in the nets was, however, not a bird but hornets! We must have taken out at least 30 spread throughout all the nets, luckily without anyone getting stung. The species of bird we caught the most of was Reed Bunting with 20 followed by 12 Blackcaps. The only other warblers caught were 4 Chiffchaff and a single Sedge Warbler, the rest of the birds were a good selection from Blackbird to Goldcrest. So it might be worth another session there next week...............unless it is too hot!
Kev
A great morning, the best ringing sessions are the ones you turn out for with no expectation of decent numbers and then you get pleasantly confounded when proved wrong.
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