Mid September Sessions

The low catches continued in the garden nets, not helped by problems with our playback equipment.  Other sites (including Goldcliff), suggest some decent numbers of Blackcap are now on the move, but without the playback, we failed to attract many to our catching area.  On the only day that was calm enough to try for Meadow Pipit in the point field (about 40+ now present), the cows had unfortunately arrived there first, and they are now quite "frisky".

On Thursday 15th, Carlton and Sophie-Lee had a catch of just 6 + (5), and in the afternoon, Andy and Jerry tried a first session at the Pennorth feeders (Andy had been feeding for about a month), The time of day was not the best, however, and just one Chaffinch was caught.  On Saturday, Carola and Jerry did slightly better with 10 + (7), and included the Lesser Whitethroat from a week or so back (Carola's first).  On Sunday, George had the lowest catch of 5 + (5).  As well as having no playback, the misty conditions meant that the nets were covered in water droplets.  On Monday, Jerry (with Ruth and Andy visiting briefly) had a catch of 10 + (5).  Finally on Tuesday, Elinor and Carlton had 11 + (4).  At the same time, Andy and Jerry were trying at the Pennorth feeders again, and 12 birds were caught.  These included 7 Great Tit, which must have had a successful second breeding attempt, in contrast to Blue Tit - with only one caught.

Species details as follows - Robin 3 + (2), Dunnock 4 + (1), Wren 3 + (2), Cetti's Warbler (1), Chiffchaff 13 + (4), Willow Warbler 1, Blackcap 9 + (3), Garden Warbler (1), Lesser Whitethroat (1), Goldcrest 4 + (1), Blue Tit 2 + (3), Coal Tit 1, Great Tit 7 + (2), Long-tailed Tit (3), Treecreeper (2), Nuthatch 3, Bullfinch 2, Chaffinch 2, Reed Bunting 1.