Slow start to November and some locally shot Canada Geese

The first two days were fine and calm, so Jerry tried an afternoon/roost on both days. On Thurs 1st, Alan L did an hour or so strimming the fence-line of brambles, before Jerry set the nets early in the afternoon, later joined by Andy for the roost. The catch was 14 + (3). On Friday, it was quieter and his catch was just 8 + (2). There then followed a period of windy/rainy weather, which curtailed ringing.

On Monday 5th, conditions improved, so Jerry made an afternoon visit (mainly to net repair), but he put the nets up at 2.30. Andy arrived soon after, and as no birds were being caught, he continued with fence-line clearance, before going to do a count of the gull roost. At 4.00, the nets started catching, with a group of Long-tailed Tits, and a few other species with the flock. About 50 Starling landed in the Spindle (adj gn5), but fortunately, they flew off as Jerry appeared. When he returned (having checked the nets from the other end of the netting area), there were about 15 birds in gn5. Not his "favourite" species to extract in twilight - but some escaped, and he ended with a catch of 11 (a bonus was that one bird had a Lithuanian ring). The session total was 25 + (6). Another period of wet/windy weather followed, but on one of Jerry's "work visits", it was sheltered enough to put a net at SG (trying for thrushes), but in an hour or so, he caught just 1 Robin.

Sunday 11th was a showery day, and Willow & Jerry were doing some fence-line clearance. Conditions were better than forecast, so they put a net at the nyger feeders for a couple of hours, and had a small catch of 5 + (2).

The summary species details as follows - Robin 2 + (1), Song Thrush 1, Redwing 11, Blackbird 3 + (1), Goldcrest 1 + (1), Blue Tit 2 + (2), Coal Tit 1 + (1), Great Tit 2 + (1), Long-tailed Tit 10 + (3), Starling 10 + (1), Goldfinch 4, Siskin 2, Lesser Redpoll 1, Chaffinch 2, Bullfinch (2) and Reed Bunting 1.

Also on 11th, Andy met a local shooter while doing his WeBS count, who had three ringed Canada Geese in his "bag". We have had few recoveries of birds shot at the Lake (apart from a batch of 25 rings given to Jeremy in late January 2012 - all shot between Sept 2011 and Jan 2012), presumably because they are not reported (rather than not being shot). The three birds were 5257962 (ringed in 2016), 5233812 and 5233910 (both ringed in 2017).