Rain rain go away...............

I am getting really hacked off with all the rain now. I haven’t been flooded like some unfortunate folk so I shouldn’t complain but enough is enough. I seem to have spent more time drying my gear out rather than being out in the field over the last couple of weeks.

I managed to get out ringing yesterday afternoon and again this morning but both sessions were curtailed by the wet stuff. If I ever win the lottery I will move or build a covered ringing site or both. Well there is always dreaming but an open sided barn type construction with clear polycarbonate roof sheeting should work or is that the rain fever starting to manifest itself.

Mobile phone weather apps are really useful and the nets are furled in good time but I have got wet packing up and walking home or loading the car on the last two outings.

I had to top up the feeders at Haigh yesterday and decided to put up a two nets for a couple of hours or so. Totals of 26 new birds and 21 retraps were recorded before the rain intervened and included 5 new Bramblings with Chaffinch, Greenfinch, Blackbird and Goldfinch making up much of the remainder of new birds.

This morning I went to the baited site at Longshaw and put up a 60ft and 40ft net. Plenty of birds arrived shortly after first light but many are ringed and clearly know how to avoid the nets. However, I still caught 23 new birds and 10 retraps along with 2 controls before the forecast rain arrived. This included another 7 new Bramblings and brought the total ringed since early November to 175. The two controls were a Greenfinch and a Long-tailed Tit that, judging by their ring numbers, will have been ringed 3 kilometres away at Kings Moss on the other side of Billinge Hill.

 

Adult male Brambling caught today. How far has this one travelled?

There may be some sunshine Saturday afternoon but otherwise the weather looks fairly grim; time to get out the multivitamins, hit the sunbeds or leave the country.

Home grown Willow Tit retrapped today but still a cracker.

Ringing totals for 26^th and 27^th December (retraps in brackets)
 

Blackbird 4
Blue Tit 1 (6)
Brambling 12 (3)
Chaffinch 14 (1)
Bullfinch – (1)
Coal Tit 1
Goldfinch 2
Great Tit 2 (6)
Greenfinch 10 (7 +1 control)
Willow Tit - (1)
Great-spotted Woodpecker – (1)
Robin 2 (2)
Long-tailed Tit 1 (3 + 1 control)
Totals: 49 new birds, 31 retraps and 2 controls