Billinge 18th & 19th October 2018

I didn't get chance to write reports on these visits before going away on holiday, or while I was away for that matter, but I felt there was enough of note to merit this belated summary.

The most notable feature of the 18th was the number of Goldcrests present with the 27 ringed being the highest total of the autumn in terms of new birds but equalling the 26 new and 1 retrap that were caught on 7th October. Thrushes made up much of the rest of the catch with 21 Redwing and 4 Song Thrush keeping me busy in that first hour or so around sunrise.
Ringing Totals for 18/10/2018 were: Coal Tit 1; Great Tit 2; Goldcrest 27; Redwing 21; Song Thrush 4; Chaffinch 1; Lesser Redpoll 2.

Goldcrest 18/10/2018

The 19th saw a big change in the number of Goldcrests present with only 2 ringed and there were fewer thrushes around too. However, there were more finches moving with a good movement of Bramblings in particular. I wasn't able to keep track of the numbers of Bramblings involved but the flocks and groups I counted in between net rounds just got into 3 figures so I am sure the true figure must have been far higher. A few Bramblings also found their way into the nets and 5 were ringed (first to be ringed this autumn).
Ringing totals for 19/10/2018 were: Goldcrest 2; Redwing 9; Brambling 5; Lesser Redpoll 5.

Male Brambling 19/10/2018

Sparrowhawk double

It had to be a shorter session than usual at Billinge this morning because I had an appointment to go to but it turned out to be interesting nevertheless. There weren't many thrushes moving but over 2,000 Woodpigeons were counted going south by 9:00am (per CAD). A single Brambling was the first of the autumn and another or the same was heard again later. There were no warblers, not even a Chiffchaff, but Goldcrests found their way into the nets at regular intervals and a total of 13 were ringed. A couple of Sparrowhawks livened things up with a 1cy male being caught first and a 2cy female being caught in the same net an hour later. Catching 2 Sparrowhawks in the same session doesn't happen very often but the 3 previous occasion it has happened have all been in mid October like today's double act. The lively theme continued when a rather feisty Jay was caught and it did its best to take lumps out of me, as they usually do. The last net round produced a group of 5 Lesser Redpolls and, interestingly, 4 of the 5 were adult males which continues the predominance of adults in the Redpolls caught so far this month.

1cy male Sparrowhawk

1cy male Sparrowhawk

2cy female Sparrowhawk

The female Sparrowhawk had an unusual and very hard accretion on the tip of one of its claws. I have never seen anything like this before and have no idea what could have caused it..

Ringing totals (retraps in brackets) for 15.09.18 were: Sparrowhawk 2; Jay 1; Coal Tit 2, Blue Tit 1; Great Tit 1; Goldcrest 13; Blackbird 1; Song Thrush 3 (1); Bullfinch (2); Lesser Redpoll 5. Total 29 new birds and 3 retraps.

Late Willow Warbler

I nearly didn't go out this morning as the forecast said there was going to be more of a breeze than yesterday but the chance of catching more Redwings or something unusual got the better of me. The south-westerly breeze was a bit too strong for the net rides in the top willows so I opted for the more sheltered rides in north-east corner of the site. I set up the first net before it started to get light and unlike yesterday there were the occasional calls of Redwings flying overhead to give me some encouragement.

It turned out to be a much busier morning at the nets than I had expected so I didn't have much time for looking up to see what was passing overhead but at least 200 Redwings went south and many others would have been missed. Redwings were also the most numerous birds in the nets with a total of 19 caught but unlike yesterday there weren't many Goldcrests around and only 4 were ringed. It was almost a repeat performance as far as Coal Tits were concerned with a total of 7 ringed which becomes the second highest day total after yesterday's 8 and it increasingly looks like some are genuinely on the move. The poor autumn for Lesser Redpolls continued with only 3 ringed and 2 of those were adults which, as I said in yesterday's post, isn't a good sign. The most unusual capture was a Willow Warbler as it is a very late date for the species in this area.  It is only the second I have recorded in October but it still well short of the latest which was a bird ringed on 23rd October 2014.

Adult female Lesser Redpoll.

Ageing was straightforward as it hadn't finished moulting with the inner secondaries still growing in both wings. The tertials and coverts were also very fresh and similarly coloured as they should be.

If any further confirmation was required the tail was about as fresh and rounded as they get in adult Lesser Redpolls in autumn.

An October Willow Warbler is rarer than Yellow-browed Warbler at Billinge.

Ringing totals (retraps in brackets) for 08/10/2013 were: Coal Tit 7; Blue Tit 6; Great Tit 8 (2); Long-tailed Tit 7 (4); Willow Warbler 1; Chiffchaff 2; Goldcrest 4; Blackbird 1; Redwing 19; Song Thrush 2;  Robin 2; Chaffinch 1; Lesser Redpoll 3. Total 63 new birds and 6 retraps.

First Redwings and a glut of Goldcrest.

There have been some reasonable arrivals of Redwings on the east coast and in the northern isles over the last week so I thought there would be a good chance of seeing and possibly catching my first of the autumn at Billinge this morning. I was so keen I got up extra early and had the first net set up in the top willows before it started to get light but I didn't hear any nocturnal flight calls of Redwings or any other thrushes for that matter. I quickly set another 3 nets (my usual set up of 3 nets generally becomes 4 once Redwings start to arrive) and while I still didn't hear any Redwings flying over there were 2 or 3 Song Thrushes calling in the bushes as it it started to get light.

Initially there wasn't much moving through the bushes or overhead but that changed after the sun was up and it became quite an eventful morning. There wasn't a huge amount moving overhead but there was a quite a bit more than there has been recently. A Redwing, my first of the autumn, was heard shortly after sunrise and groups of 4, 2, 4 and 15 were seen subsequently. A couple of high flying Song Thrushes and 4 equally high flying Blackbirds were also seen and likely to be migrants from the continent. The morning was punctuated by the occasional calls of Siskins and Meadow Pipits but the stand out highlight was a flock of 19 Crossbills which passed me at eye level and close range as they flew SSW over the SE flank of the hill. Other birds on the move included small numbers of Woodpigeons, Goldfinches, and Chaffinches.

The nets were quite productive and produced one of the best catches of what has been a below par autumn so far. Highlights were 26 Goldcrests (the highest day total this autumn by some margin), a Redwing (obviously the first ringed this autumn), 3 Song Thrush (all likely migrants) and 8 Coal Tits (the highest day total for the site and suggestive of irruptive movement). Also of note were 2 Lesser Redpolls but only because they were both adult males; there haven't been many Redpolls this autumn and the appearance of adults without any first-years doesn't bode well for the rest of the autumn.

It was a return to something like normal numbers of Goldcrests today but the big question is will it last or is it just a one off improvement. One thing is certain only time tell.

It is always good to see and ring the first Redwing of the autumn and hopefully there will be some really big movements to come. The forecast for the middle of next week (Wednesday into Thursday) is looking promising at the moment and may bring the first really big arrivals of the autumn, lets hope so.

Ringing totals (retraps in brackets) for 07/10/2018 were: Coal Tit 8; Blue Tit 3; Great Tit 7; Long-tailed Tit 2 (4); Chiffchaff 2; Goldcrest 26 (1); Wren 2; Redwing 1; Song Thrush 3; Robin 3; Bullfinch 3; Lesser Redpoll 2; Goldfinch 1; Reed Bunting 2. A total of 65 new birds and 5 retraps.

Billinge: 1st October 2018

A light northerly breeze and generally clear conditions weren't likely to produce many birds so I wasn't surprised when a session in the top willows started off very slowly. Only 9 birds were caught in the first couple of hours so I decided to pack up early but then a flock of 8 Long-tailed Tits was caught in what was going to be the final net round and tempted me to stay a bit longer. I am certainly glad I decided to stay as the catching rate wasn't too bad for the next couple of hours, although it was largely made up of tits.  However, there were a few Goldcrests too and they included a bird that was already wearing a ring from elsewhere which was the clear highlight of the morning. The final total of 44 new birds and 1 control was much better than expected and was a good start to the month.

The control Goldcrest had a ring number with prefix KHV and it looked like a very new ring so may have been ringed quite recently. With Goldcrest numbers being very low this autumn I thought my prospects of getting any controls or recoveries would be very low too so this bird was a very welcome surprise.

There haven't been many Redpolls on the move so far this autumn and today's was the first adult male.

Adult male Lesser Redpoll

Noisy Coal Tits are often a feature of clear days in late September and much of  October but how many actually move very far is open to question.

Photographs of Great Tits rarely appear in the blog but I had to include these two as they show how different the intensity of the yellow can be. Both were first-year females. I have looked back at the sexes of the Greats Tits that were caught in September and there was a clear preponderance of females; of the 44 handled 31 were females,12 were males and 1 was left unsexed as it hadn't completed its post juvenile moult.

Ringing totals for 01/10/2018 were: Coal Tit 4; Blue Tit 8; Great Tit 6; Long-tailed Tit 9; Chiffchaff 2; Blackcap 1; Goldcrest 10 (1 control); Blackbird 1; Dunnock 1; Bullfinch 1; Lesser Redpoll 1. 44 new birds and 1 control.

Late September

The last few days of the month saw no significant change at Billinge and, like the month as a whole, can be summed up as disappointing. The ringing totals below tell the story with the only highlight, although it is not much of one, being the 15 Goldcrests caught on the 27th; their highest day total in what has been an exceptionally poor month for that species. I know I have gone on about the low numbers of Goldcrests in recent posts but that is because their numbers have been very low compared to previous years. The total for this September ended up at 71 which is very poor when compared with previous September totals of 258 in 2015, 237 in 2016 and 269 in 2017. They will bounce back in time but how quickly will depend on the severity of winter weather going forward.

September	26th	27th	28th	30th	Total
Goldcrest	12	15	4	7	38
Blue Tit	4	2	5	3	14
Great Tit	2	2	3	3	10
Long-tailed Tit	12	-	-	2 (1)	14 (1)
Chiffchaff	4 (1)	2	4	2	12 (1)
Blackcap	3	3	3	-	9
Treecreeper	-	-	-	1	1
Wren	-	-	-	1	1
Song Thrush	-	-	-	1	1
Dunnock	-	1	-	-	1
Chaffinch	3	1	-	-	4
Lesser Redpoll	-	1	-	-	1
Reed Bunting	1	-	1	-	2
Total	42	27	20	21	110

Lets hope we get some easterly winds to help improve things in October and looking at some of the long range pressure charts there is a chance, and it is only a chance, that there will be a brief spell of easterlies this coming Saturday and a longer period around the middle of the month.

Billinge: 25th September 2018

The prospect of catching more Redpolls tempted me out again this morning and the usual 3 nets produced 34 birds in just over 3 hours but no Redpolls were ringed.

Highlights and observations of note were as follows:

• A Willow Warbler was ringed and is a fairly late record but still well short of the latest for the site which was on 23/10/2014.
• Goldcrests just managed to scrape into double figures for the first time this month with 10 ringed but it still looks like the UK population has taken a tumble as double figure totals should be the norm for much of September. Interestingly, 9 of the 10 Goldcrests were females.
• This was the first session of the autumn without a Blackcap being ringed and none were seen or even heard.
• Tits are starting to show signs of getting itchy feet with Coal Tits becoming much more vocal and flighty. While I sure some do move others may just go through the motions and turn back or only go a relatively short distance.
• Great Tits also showed a sex bias today with the 7 ringed all being females.
• There was next to no visible migration despite the clear conditions and fairly light breeze with only a handful of Meadow Pipits, a few Skylarks, 4 Reed Buntings, 2 Siskins and 3 Redpolls being noted.

Ringing totals for 25/09/2018 were: Coal Tit 3; Blue Tit 4; Great Tit 7; Willow Warbler 1; Chiffchaff 4; Goldcrest 10; Chaffinch 2; Yellowhammer 2; Reed Bunting 1.

Willow Warbler 25/09/2018

Two good birds save the day.

The silence that greeted me at dawn this morning did not bode well for a ringing session in the top willows at Billinge and pointed to another poor showing by Goldcrests in particular. In previous autumns, when Goldcrests have passed through in large numbers, they have usually been the first species to call at daybreak and early net rounds nearly always produced the bulk of the birds. This morning the first Goldcrest wasn't heard until well after after sunrise and there wasn't much happening at the nets either.

To say it was quiet and slow going is an understatement and I thought I would end up cutting my losses by packing up early. However, the first Chiffchaff caught was really quite striking and wasn't your typical September green and mustard-yellow 'collybita'.  It was distinctly paler having much greyer tones to the upperparts, was much whiter underneath and the flanks were washed with pale brown and I immediately thought this must be a Scandinavian 'abietinus' Chiffchaff. It was certainly very different to any 'collybita' I have ever seen and I have ringed well over a thousand at Billinge and many more elsewhere.

A very grey and white looking Chiffchaff compared to your typical autumn 'collybita'. It was aged as a first-year from the shape and wear of the tail feathers.

A typical autumn 'collybita' photographed the same day in similar lighting conditions and also aged as a first-year.

The different races of Chiffchaffs present all manner of problems when it comes to identification as shown by the DNA analysis of birds caught in Holland that were identified as 'abietinus' on appearance and proved to be 'tristis' from their DNA. This and other studies have thrown the status of abietinus in western Europe into question and it now appears to be much rarer than its more easterly Siberian (tristis) counterpart. 

There are a couple of other factors that make today's bird even more interesting: one is the date, it is quite early for seeing a dodgy looking Chiffchaff which are usually associated with late autumn or winter; the other is lack of easterly winds so far this autumn which are generally needed to drift birds of such origin to the UK. Had I caught this bird in late October or early November I may have thought it to be a bird with more easterly credentials and possibly from the intergrade zone between abietinus and tristis. It has certainly got some of that look about it.

A collage of both birds. Whatever it is, and potentially proves to be in due course from its DNA, is going to be interesting.

Had I not caught that Chiffchaff I may have packed up by 9:00 but I decided to stick it out and I am glad I did as the second bird that helped 'save the day' was a 1cy female Redstart. This species is a regular but scarce passage migrant at the site and this one was only my second of the autumn and my latest by some margin. Redstarts are usually a bird of late August and early September at this site and my previous latest was caught on 14th September 2017 with all the others recorded between 23rd August and 7th September.

1cy female Redstart

The are not called Redstarts for nothing.

The final total of 30 new birds wasn't too bad but was below the average for the time of year, largely due to the continued lack of Goldcrests. Only 5 Goldcrests were caught compared to 25 on the same date in 2016 and 14 on the same date last year. One minor point of interest about today's Goldcrests is that they were all first-year females, not that anything significant should be read into that as the sex ratios usually even out over time. So while the catching rate was slow from start to finish a couple of interesting birds really did 'save the day' and made staying the course worthwhile.

Ringing totals for 23/09/2018 were: Coal Tit 1; Blue Tit 4; Great Tit 2;  Chiffchaff 6; Blackcap 2; Goldcrest 5; Wren 3; Robin 2; Redstart 1; Chaffinch 1; Linnet 1; Reed Bunting 2.

No significant improvement.

It was another below par session at Billinge on the 17th and not helped by an unexpectedly foggy start. The bushes were extremely quiet from the off and the fog, which only lifted quite slowly, ensured there was little in the way of any visible migration until I was leaving. Only 1 Chiffchaff was caught which continues the very poor numbers for that species this autumn. It appears that Chiffchaffs returned in much lower numbers than usual (nationally) back in the spring and that is the primary cause of their poor showing this autumn. If that is the case there is unlikely to be any significant improvement in their numbers over the remainder of the autumn.

There was a slight improvement in the number of Goldcrests with a total of 6 ringed but that is still well below the average for the date compared with the previous 4 years. As with Chiffchaffs the cause goes back to much earlier in the year and a low breeding population rather than a particularly poor breeding season. Again there is little prospect of any significant improvement in their numbers through the remainder of September although with Goldcrests there is always the possibility of a influx of migrants from the continent if we get easterly winds (and they have to be the right easterly winds) in early October.

It looks like the exceptionally low numbers of Goldcrests (compared to the previous 4 years) will continue to be a feature of blog posts for the remainder of this month and probably all of next month.  The severe cold of late February and early March appears to be the culprit and seems to have had a much bigger impact on the British breeding population than I had hoped. I thought the impact may not have been too severe as it came quite late in the winter, when day length is longer and gives birds more time for feeding, but it is looking like that was a far too optimistic outlook for this species.

As previously mentioned 'viz' was almost none existent because of the fog and murk but a couple of dozen Meadow Pipits and a Grey Wagtail did push through along with 6 or so House Martins. However, things did start to brighten up towards the end of the session which prompted a few Swallows to start moving along with 3 Siskins.

Ringing totals (retraps in brackets) for 17/09/2018 were: Coal Tit (1); Blue Tit 1; Great Tit 3; Chiffchaff 1; Blackcap 4; Goldcrest 6; Chaffinch 1; Bullfinch 1(1); Yellowhammer 1; Reed Bunting 1.

Mainly negative news

Another 2 disappointing visits to the site at Billinge but at least the garden is producing better than expected results.

Billinge 12th September 2018
A total of 31 birds from 3 nests may not sound too bad but it was well below what I have come to expect from this site in mid-September. The big news was the continued lack of Goldcrests, only 1 caught and that was the only one seen or heard, and the low numbers of Chiffchaffs, 2 being a pitiful total for the date. Visible migration was almost none existent and the few Meadow Pipits that were moving were not even passing over at the rate of a trickle, more of an an intermittent drip. The only highlights were a late(ish) Willow Warbler and a similar late(ish) Whitethroat.
Ringing totals (retraps in brackets) were: Blue Tit 8 (1); Great Tit 4; Willow Warbler 1; Chiffchaff 2; Blackcap 2; Whitethroat 1; Goldcrest 1, Song Thrush 1, Robin 1, Meadow Pipit 4, Linnet 2, Goldfinch 2, Reed Bunting 1.

Willow Warbler 12/09/2018

Whitethroat 12/09/2018

Billinge 13th September 2018
If I thought the 12th was poor the 13th was even worse. Nothing was caught in the first hour and only 9 birds were caught after 3 hours so I cut my losses and packed up early. Goldcrests were absent again which continues to suggest there has been a crash in their population; I have only ringed 3 so far this September compared to 56 by the same date in 2014, 34 in 2015, 58 in 2016, and 90 in 2018. The lower than usual numbers of Chiffchaff also continued. Sightings of note were limited to a high flying Song Thrush that was heading south, a Siskin south and another or the same north later, and a grounded Wheatear.
Ringing totals were: Blue Tit 1; Great Tit 3; Chiffchaff 3; Blackcap 1; Reed Bunting 1.

Garden 1st to 14th September 2018
Back home Starlings are visiting the feeders in bigger numbers and more often than they usually do at this time of year. A total of 53 were ringed from the 1st to the 13th and I manged to ring another 8 on the 14th which is unprecedented for my garden. While I catch large numbers in May and June numbers usually fall off sharply in July and I don't normally catch any in August or September. This year numbers dropped off as usual through most of July but then they started to pick up again towards the end of that month and they have continued to increase since then. Now a mob of up to 30 Starlings visit the feeders periodically throughout the day and more than one mob may be involved.

A retrap Starling caught on the 13th was suffering from avian pox. It had at least 11 lesions of various sizes dotted about its body although most (6) were on its head. It was originally ringed on 20th May when it showed no sign of the disease. A set of images and details will be sent to the Garden Wildlife Health project via their website.

Billinge: 5th & 10th September 2018

September is a month when autumn migration is normally in full swing and even if one species doesn't deliver another usually does. However, this September is starting to look very different to those of the past 4 years at Billinge and although there is still time for things to change things don't look very promising at the moment.

5th September 2018
A morning that got off to a good start with a Song Thrush caught in the first net just as the last guy rope was being tied off. September sees British Song Thrushes starting to move and the first continental migrants arriving with this bird likely to be one of the former. After that it was generally a lacklustre session with the numbers bulked up by a few too many tits. If I had to pick a highlight it would be the capture of the first 4 Meadow Pipits of the autumn although 4 is a relatively poor total for this date in September. The biggest news, if you can call it that, was the near absence of Goldcrests with only 2 caught. Goldcrests usually start to move through the site in good numbers from the start of September so a total of 2 is well below the norm of the past 4 years.

Meadow Pipit 05/09/2018

Totals for 05/09/2018 were: Blue Tit 11; Great Tit 6;  Willow Warbler 2; Chiffchaff 6; Blackcap 4; Goldcrest 2; Song Thrush 1; Meadow Pipit 4; Chaffinch 1; Linnet 3.

10th September 2018
If the session on the 5th fell short of what I have come to expect from the site in September this one was even more disappointing. The near absence of Goldcrests of the 5th became a total absence with none being caught, seen or even heard. To give that some context last September saw 21 ringed on the 1st, 17 ringed on the 10th September and a total of 77 over the first 10 days. In 2016 it was a similar picture with 50 ringed over the first ten days of the month and no blank sessions. It is starting to look like Goldcrests were hit really hard by spell of severe cold weather back in March.
It is getting a bit late for Willow Warblers so the capture of 2 was noteworthy but the near absence of Chiffchaffs was far more unusual with none caught and only 2 heard all morning. Chiffchaffs numbers normally peak in September and a capture total in low double figures should have been on the cards. The quiet theme was also reflected in the visible migration with only a few Meadow Pipits moving. It was the quietest I have known the site to be in September by some margin and it is to be hoped the rest of the month doesn't carry on that way.

Totals for 10/09/2018 (retrap in brackets) were: Sparrowhawk 1; Blue Tit 4 (1); Willow Warbler 2; Blackcap 2; Dunnock 1; Meadow Pipit 7; Chaffinch 2.

One of the Blackcaps caught on the 10th was still largely in juvenile plumage which is suggestive of some very late breeding.

The last bird caught on the 10th was this juvenile female Sparrowhawk.

Sprong

The British obsession with the weather has certainly been reinforced by the recent cold snaps and the meteorological tug of war that has been going on between winter and spring is not over yet. We certainly haven't seen much in the way of springlike weather so far this month and it has made for a stuttering start to the season for breeding birds and migrants alike. Undaunted by the weather I have been up to Billinge on each of the last 3 mornings (20th to 22nd) and while it felt far more like winter than spring there was just enough of interest to make each of the early starts worthwhile.

The 20th produced my first Wheatear and Stonechat of the spring with a second Stonechat joining the first later on in the morning. The nets only produced a handful of birds but a new Goldcrest will have been a migrant as they don't breed at the site and nearby breeders are already holding territory and singing with increasing frequency. An adult male Chaffinch with a long wing length of 93mm will also have been a migrant and should be heading back to Scandinavia fairly soon.

There were a few more species around on the 21st but it was one of those mornings where you have to work really hard to convince yourself that it was actually worth getting up before 5am. A solitary Brambling was an unconvincing highlight of the 42 species recorded, none of which were new for the year. Again the nets didn't produce much but another adult male Chaffinch of continental origin was caught, this one had a wing length of 94mm and was carrying quite a lot of fat, weighing in at 29.3g. That may not sound very heavy but it is when you compare it to a lean local male Chaffinch that was caught the same morning and only weighed 21.4g. It may have been an uninspiring morning in many respects but better that than staying in bed and wondering what could have been missed.

This Chaffinch was as fat as it looks.

The 22nd saw an improvement with a Jack Snipe being the standout highlight as it was a new species for the site. It was also another sign of migration albeit not the arriving Chiffchaff I had been expecting and hoping for. A Woodcock was seen and was likely to have been a passage migrant as I haven't seen any of the wintering birds recently. There was a bit more movement overhead with a few Meadow Pipits and Linnets heading north and a total of 17 Redwings heading south or south-east. Two Grey-lag Geese also made their way north in their typically noisy fashion but the pick of the visible migration was a female Merlin which sped north over the adjacent farmland and I considered myself lucky not to have missed it such was its rate of progress.

The nets weren't much busier than they had been on the previous two mornings but a Redwing was caught at first light and, interestingly, it only weighed 53.2g which is quite light and almost certainly a consequence of the recent severe weather. Two male Goldcrests were caught as they worked their way north through the bushes and it will be interesting to see how the Goldcrest population is judged to have have fared given the recent hard weather. If it turns out that they haven't done too badly it is probably because the cold snaps came at the end of the winter, when the days are much longer, which will have given them more time to find food. Yet another continental Chaffinch was caught, although at 90mm not quite as long-winged as the previous two, but judging by its weight and the fat deposits that could be seen under its skin it was obviously getting ready for a long journey.

Redwings had a really tough time during the recent cold spells and those that survived will have lost a lot of condition.

I don't catch many Goldcrests in spring but the fact that I have already caught a few suggests they may not have been hit as hard as they could have been had the cold snaps come earlier in the winter.

It may be the wrong type of spring at the moment, and it certainly doesn't look like it is going to get much better anytime soon, but I will keep plugging away to see what is moving despite the generally unfavourable weather patterns.

A few firsts of sorts.

I have been up to Billinge quite a few times over the last couple of months but apart from seeing up to 6 Woodcock during the cold snap they have been largely uneventful affairs. I decided to pay another visit this morning as the forecast seemed favourable and I hoped few migrants would be on the move. Unfortuntely it was quite misty when I got to site but I decided to set 3 nets in the hope it would soon clear.

The mist didn't clear, if anything it became more of a fog, but I still managed to catch a few birds including a few that were the first to be ringed or retrapped at the site this year. I have never managed to catch Redwings at the site in late winter or spring so catching 5 this morning was a first in more ways than one. I occasionally see a few Redwings on passage in spring but they are never very numerous, like they are in autumn, and they are very difficult to catch as a result. A Lesser Redpoll was the first to be ringed this year but not only that it was the first to be seen at the site this year, making it a double first. It effectively marks the start of spring passage for that species although most usually move through in April. A retrap Goldcrest was also the first of its kind to be caught at the site this year and had been ringed on 23rd September last year. It may have wintered somewhere locally but it could be a migrant that had wintered further south and was on its way back north. Migrant Goldcrests usually start to move through the site from mid-March with passage continuing into April.

The Redwings were in reasonable condition although couple were on the light side and had little in the way of any fat. This is only to be expected as many would have struggled to find food during the recent cold weather.

This Song Thrush was caught with 2 of the Redwings and could be a migrant or a bird that was displaced by the cold weather rather than being one from the local breeding population.

The Lesser Redpoll had a mixture of amber and red coloured feathers in its poll as can be clearly seen in the close-up below. The poll is usually one colour or the other so I don't see birds like this very often.

The fog meant there was no vis mig to speak of but a Siskin was heard and a group of at least 7 Meadow Pipits went north just above tree top height and hinted at what might have been had the conditions been clearer. Unfortunately the fog didn't clear and after a couple of hours some unforecast showers arrived and forced and early end to the session.

Ringing totals (retraps in brackets) for 13/03/2018 were: Redwing 5; Song Thrush 1; Goldcrest (1); Long-tailed Tit 2 (5); Blue Tit (1), Lesser Redpoll 1.