Late October

Good (almost daily) coverage continued during the period, with more Group members sharing the visits. Catches remained disappointingly low however, with poor numbers of our "basic" October species -
Redwing/Goldcrest/Redpoll. Gareth had an early start on Sunday 21st with cold and foggy conditions, soon changing to bright sunlight. In four hours, his catch was just 6 birds, so he opted for an early finish. Jerry resumed at 2pm, when some cloud cover arrived, and had a slightly better afternoon with 13 birds. The best of which was a young male Sparrowhawk - flying into gn6 while he was taking out a Bullfinch. Fortunately, he managed to prevent the hawk escaping, while still removing the Bullfinch from the net.

On Monday morning, Alan L visited to do some hut repairs, and to start clearing the fence-line around our catching area, while Andy did an afternoon/roost session, for another catch of 13 birds. Carlton tied on Tuesday 23rd, and in a short (3 hour) afternoon visit, had a catch of 5 + (3). Surprisingly, three of the new birds were in gn4a (caught within 10 mins of putting the net up). Even more of a surprise - two of the birds were Grey Wagtails, the Group has only previously ringed six (in 1978, 1981, 1982, 1987, 2008 and 2017). On Wednesday, Jerry arrived early in the afternoon (to continue net repairing), and was soon joined
by Carlton for the afternoon/roost. The main part of their catch of 11 birds, came late in the session/at the roost.

On Thursday 25th, Jeremy returned for a catch of 7 + (5), which included our 2000th bird for the year - a young female Bullfinch. He narrowly missed adding another species for the "year list", when a Tawny Owl flew along gn6, past him while extracting at the net. Andy was there on Friday, but with a lot of disturbance (from ditching machinery adjacent to the netting area), he soon gave up with no catch. On Saturday, Jerry visited to continue with fence-line clearance, but it was calm (contra to the forecast). After a couple of hours, he started to catch Redpoll, but the wind then picked up and he had to stop after 7 + (1) were caught. With lots of leaves blowing into the nets, it was very reminiscent of Rybachy !! (for those who have made the October visit there).

Jerry was back on Tuesday 30th, for an afternoon/roost visit. The catch of 18 + (2) was made up mainly of Goldfinch, Lesser Redpoll and Redwing - one of which was caught in the net he was repairing (well away from any cover).

Species breakdown - Sparrowhawk 1, Grey Wagtail 2, Wren 1 + (1), Robin 3 + (6), Dunnock (3), Blackbird 3 + (2), Song Thrush 1, Redwing 14, Blackcap 2, Goldcrest 4, Blue Tit 1 + (11), Great Tit 3 + (2), Long-tailed Tit (2), Treecreeper 1, Goldfinch 7 + (1), Siskin 1, Lesser Redpoll 16 + (1), Bullfinch 1 + (1) and Reed Bunting 1.

Our October ringing total was 185 (lower than each of the last five years, range 194-350), and disappointing, given the high level of coverage (18 visits) during the month. The YTD becomes 2030 - the lowest, at this stage of the year, since 2013.

our 2000th bird of the year (a young female Bullfinch, still in post-juvenile moult)