Coal Tits on the move.

The highlight of this mornings visit to Billinge was the capture of 15 Coal Tits which is the highest total for the site by some margin. They were all caught towards the end of the session with a flock of 7 being caught at 10am and a flock of 8 an hour later. The previous day record of 8 was only set on 7th October this year so it is clear there is much more movement going on than usual. Some vis-mig sites around the country are recording similar irruptive behaviour so it is a widespread phenomena. It's not just happening in the UK either as Falsterbo Bird Observatory, in southern Sweden, is also ringing above average numbers of Coal Tits and is on track for one of their highest autumn totals.

One of this mornings Coal Tits, 

Ringing totals for 16/10/2018 were: Coal Tit 15; Blue Tit 2; Great Tit 5; Blackcap 1; Goldcrest 7; Nuthatch 1;  Redwing 14; Song Thrush 5; Robin 1;Lesser Redpoll 3. Total 54 new birds.