Triumph over Adversity

Today we had mixed messages from various weather forecasts. In the end the days ringing was dictated by heavy rain and strong winds. We were undeterred and took every window of opportunity to catch birds. Although numbers of birds caught in previous days were higher than today we still managed a respectable 112 birds over 12 species. The day was finished off with two Dunlin, our first waders of the trip.

We erected some mist nets on the beach and tried to slowly encourage the waders into the net. It was a situation of nearly but not quite. The tide was well out which did not help, in the end not long before we planned to go home we left the area and kept an eye on the nets from a distance and watched the two Dunlin fly into them.

This Dunlin is a juvenile and the keys indicators to this are the uppermost blackish brown, whitish buff and chestnut fringes. The coverts also brownish with broad buff or chestnut fringes.

Also in the same nets as the Dunlin we managed to catch two White Wagtails, both juveniles.

 
A very handsome chunky male Greenfinch. We also caught another HouseSparrow today, a female which weighed 35gms with is probably 10gms approximately heavier than the average uk bird.

Tomorrow we hope there is some normality in the weather, it certainly looks like it is going to be a good day and we will be on site by 4.00am. It is high tide around 09.30am so we will have time to prepare the nets for another go at catching waders as the tide is nearing full.

Species	Number Caught
Reed Bunting	17
Bluethroat	32
Meadow Pipit	4
Willow Warbler	19
Redpoll	19
Brambling	8
Sedge Warbler	0
Fieldfare	2
Great tit	3
Redwing	0
Greenfinch	1
Restart	0
Arctic Redpoll	0
Lapland Bunting	0
House Sparrow	3
Pied Flycatcher	0
White Wagtail	2
Dunlin	2
Total	112