Late September

The second half of the month saw plenty of wet/windy weather disrupting our ringing, with heavy rain causing flooding in some parts of the country, and the Lake starting to rise towards its winter level. On Tuesday 24th, Jerry was in the scrub area, and although general weather conditions for ringing were good, there were very few birds moving about. The catch was just 7 + (1), made up of Chiffchaff 3, Goldcrest 1, Long-tailed Tit 1, Blue Tit 1, Treecreeper 1, and Bullfinch (1).

Andy had a (short) session on Wednesday 25th before more rain arrived late in the morning, and had a reasonable catch (for the reed bed in late September) of 13 + (2). The mix was Cettis Warbler 3 + (1), Reed Warbler 1 + (1), Chiffchaff 6, Blue Tit 2, and Reed Bunting 1.

More good ringing weather on Saturday 28th saw Jerry starting off a scrub session, with Andy taking over from mid afternoon. The start was delayed until mid morning to allow overnight conditions to improve (vegetation to dry off and warm up a bit), and the result was an improvement on the recent scrub catches at 29 + (10). The largest net round of 14 birds was in the afternoon, just after Andy had taken over. The species mix for the day was Great Spotted Woodpecker 1, Wren (1), Blackbird (1), Robin 1 + (2), Blackcap 1, Chiffchaff 9 + (1), Goldcrest 7 + (2), Blue Tit 2, Great Tit 1, Long-tailed Tit 3 + (3), Siskin 2, and Lesser Redpoll 2 (our first of the autumn, after trying to lure passage birds from mid month).

During September a total of 140 birds were ringed, well below our usual total for the month (which has exceeded 250 in recent years). Our YTD at the end of the month is 1411.