mid November sessions

On Tuesday 13th, a run of more settled weather started, so Peter/Jerry tried an afternoon/roost. The afternoon was quiet - best was 3 Lesser Redpoll, but the roost was more productive with 2 Blackbird, 10 Redwing and 3 Reed Bunting. The day ended on 21 + (2). A much quieter afternoon/roost on Wednesday for Andy, just three birds, but it did include our second Jay of the year. The pattern of few/no birds during the afternoon, slightly picking up towards roost time, continued for the week.

On Thursday, Jeremy had a better catch, his first bird being an adult male Great Spotted Woodpecker. A Sparrowhawk flew through the area, disturbing the thrushes coming to roost, and reducing his catch. His session ended with a total of 15 + (1). On Friday, Jerry had a very quiet afternoon (it was over three hours before the first bird, a retrap Blue Tit, was caught), but it picked up a bit later, to end with 7 + (1). The Sparrowhawk was still about, and escaped from the end of gn7. Carlton arrived for the roost, and then tried "lamping" the point field. Although there were a lot of birds there (he estimated c80 Snipe and 3+ Jack Snipe - all in the shallow water), he failed to catch any. Probably because of peripheral light, exacerbated by it bouncing off the water surface. Although there were fewer birds in the rb2 fields, he managed to catch 1 Snipe, our first since 2013.

On Saturday, George and Jerry arrived in the late afternoon to try the roost, but the wind increased just before dark, and gn7 was collapsed (because of the wind, and leaves blown into the net). The roost yielded just 3 + (1). Three nets were set in the point field, they were also wind affected, but our second Snipe of the year was caught. On Sunday 18th, Jerry made a final visit before another spell of windier weather was forecast. The wind, however, was stronger than forecast, and he only managed a roost catch of 3 + (2). Our annual total for Redwing has now just topped our previous best year - 56 in 2013.

Species breakdown - Snipe 2, Great Spotted Woodpecker 1, Wren 1 + (1), Robin 2 + (2), Blackbird 2, Redwing 25, Goldcrest (1), Blue Tit 7 + (2), Long-tailed Tit (1), Jay 1, Lesser Redpoll 6, Goldfinch 2 and Reed Bunting 5.