Minus 6 centigrade to plus 11 thrushes

I ventured up to Billinge this morning to see if the cold weather was causing any thrushes to move. I wasn't expecting a large scale cold weather movement as the cold weather hasn't been with us long enough for that but I thought the sub zero temperatures (about -6 this morning) and lingering snow cover would cause some local movement with both Fieldfares and Redwings moving in search of any remaining berries or, in the case of some Redwings, moving into mature woodland to search for invertebrates in the leaf litter.

It was one of those mornings where things didn't go exactly to plan and while I thought I had got up early enough the light covering of snow and crystal clear skies mean't it started to get light a little faster than it otherwise would. To make matters worse a shelf string came undone on one of the nets as I was putting it up which delayed set-up by forcing an impromptu repair. Despite these hiccups I still managed to get 3 nets up about half an hour before sunrise although it was getting quite light by then.

The first round of the nets produced an excellent catch of 10 Redwings and a Fieldfare but just after sunrise fog started to form and froze onto the nets, turning them white with ice crystals. This effectively ended the session and any movement but the 11 birds caught was still a good result and along with another 20 Redwing and 5 Fieldfare seen showed that some thrushes were moving before the fog rolled in.

Fieldfare 12/12/2017

Redwing 12/12/2017

Redwing 12/12/2017
All of the birds were a healthy weight and carrying some fat.