Fygyn Common, Peckers, Crests and Tits 16/11/14

Cold this morning, there was a north easterly breeze at home but up on the Common it was stronger and it affected the nets a little. I decided to give it a couple of hours and if it increased I would finish and go home. Yesterday I went for another walk on the common and heard and spotted a Willow Tit so this morning I decided to put Willow Tit sound on as well as Meadow Pipit, Goldcrest and Linnet. I have not seen any Linnet yet but from experience I have found that the sound of Linnet does attract other species as well.

Started off with a few Blue Tits and on the 3rd round caught this male Greater Spotted Woodpecker and the Willow Tit below which was nice. I do like peckers but they have a nasty habit if thinking your finger and hands are pieces of wood and peck incessantly and each peck produces a drop of blood where it has broken the skin.

For me the Willow Tit was the bird of the day, a juvenile caught in the net right next to Willow Tit sound. They are easily confused with Marsh Tit. The cream colour pain on the wing is classic for the species. My first for Fygyn Common but third for the year.

The Marsh Tit has a white patch on it mandible where it joins the feathering of the head, Clearly on this picture you can see there is no patch so a second indicator suggesting it is a Willow Tit.

A female Bullfinch. When I was doing my Reccies of the site before I started ringing here I heard and spotted two birds, both these birds were males.

Another Goldcrest, a male, makes this the fourth bird in two sessions. There are plenty about this year.

No sign of any Great Grey Shrike today, hopefully they are still around. Only time will tell. From the BTO records for 2013 no GGS were ringed in Wales and only 7 were ringed in GB which suggests they are fairly rare. So two birds a couple of days ago was rather lucky. Having said that we all get it sometime, so you have to be out doing it to gets the rewards. 

Species	New	Re-traps	Totals
Blue Tit	4	1	5
Willow Tit	1		1
Wren	1		1
Dunnock	2	1	3
Great Spotted Woodpecker	1		1
Bullfinch	1		1
Goldcrest	2		2
Totals	12	2	14

Above totals for today, if I could find somewhere on the Common out of the wind I feel I would have had more. Birds were around but movement of the nets scares them off. I did finish early because the wind did get stronger and as you can see not many birds were caught.