Through the thousand barrier.

I took the day off work because the car was in for repair and it would save me trying to arrange lifts. The weather looked like being half decent too - the calm before the storm or at least a wet and windy Wednesday according to the forecast. As it was flat calm I tried a net in the garden first but only caught three new birds in the form of a Dunnock, a Coal Tit and a Long-tailed Tit.

The moth trap hasn't produced much for ages and today was no different with only two Hebrew Characters being caught. The weather is holding everything up. Some birds will have difficulty finding insects and caterpillars for their young if it doesn't warm up soon.

At lunchtime I set off with the dog and a couple of poles and what you might call my stalking gear. I hadn't gone far when I got a call from the garage telling me that the car needed a new turbo and it was going to cost around £1,000. Not what I wanted to hear.

I walked to the Longshaw site hoping some Whitethroats or a Grasshopper Warbler had arrived but no such luck. Only managed to catch a new and a retrap Willow Warbler there. I then went on to a mixed woodland about 1km away; more for the walk than anything. However, this turned out to be quite productive and produced 5 Willow Warblers, 5 Blackcaps, 6 Goldcrests and a Chiffchaff. All were new birds except for a Blackacap which I had ringed at Longshaw on 7th April this year.


Goldcrest (Regulus regulus)

I had put in about 8 hours in the field by now so decided I had better go home but I still managed to to catch another new Blackcap at Longshaw on the way back. The number of birds caught during the day had taken the total for the year over the 1,000 bird mark.  The final totals for the day being:

Dunnock 1
Coal Tit 1
Long-tailed Tit 1
Willow Warbler 6 (1)
Chiffchaff 1
Blackcap 5 (1)
Goldcrest 6
Total 21 new birds and (2) retraps.