Late November, and first bird crop session.

On Thursday 22nd, Ron, Jeremy and Jerry had an afternoon, completing small jobs around our ringing site (net mending, fence-line clearance, fence repairs and replacement nestbox). The weather was "perfect" for netting so they put up the scrub nets, but the roost resulted in just two birds (it looks like most wintering thrush now seem to have moved on, as usually happens). The Snipe nets resulted in a zero catch, despite some 40 birds being in the point field when the nets were put up. The total catch of 3 + (1) was made up of Dunnock (1), Redwing 1, Blackbird 1 and Blue Tit 1.

Monday 26th was the final day before wet and windy weather was forecast, scheduled to last beyond the end of the month. Jerry took the opportunity to try the Pennorth bird crop, but was unable to get any help, which made moving the flock around to a location, where they could be caught, failed. The flock comprised mainly Chaffinch (c100), and c20 House Sparrow, with just a few Reed Bunting and Yellowhammer. After three hours, his catch of 20 + (1) comprised Wren 1, Dunnock 1, Blue Tit 10, Great Tit 1 + (1), Chaffinch 2, Reed Bunting 2 and Yellowhammer 3.

During November, 130 birds were ringed, bringing the YTD to 2160. We have only had two lower totals for November in the last ten years, and unless we have some suitable weather for December bird crop catches, our annual total is likely to be our fourth lowest (for the same period).