17/11/13: Head count of 20.

A misty murky morning gave way to a plain old murky afternoon and ideal conditions for mist-netting. This tempted me to put a net up after lunch to try and catch a few more of the garden Goldfinches. I didn't have long to wait before the first birds were caught and I was kept very busy for the rest of the afternoon; recording plumage details and taking photographs of the succession of birds caught.

By the end of the afternoon I had caught 17 new and 3 retrap Goldfinches and a couple of Collared Doves for good measure. This brought the total number of Goldfinches ringed this weekend to 31 and the total for the autumn to 313, not a bad total given the size of my garden. Hopefully the number of birds ringed will produce a few recoveries in due course but the photographs and plumage descriptions are the real prize..

Side profiles of the heads of the 20 Goldfinches caught this afternoon.
Photos are also taken of at least 4 other parts of the plumage of each bird.

A 7 bird roast

I was up well before first light to put the turkey in the oven as it would take around four and half hours to cook and would need resting for at least two hours on top of that. It was calm, quite mild and very overcast as dawn broke so I decided to put a net up in the garden given I was going to be tied to the kitchen for a good while.

The feeders were very quiet but I still managed to catch 5 new Goldfinches and 2 new Starlings. There wasn’t any sign of the Blackcap today but the mild conditions could have contributed to that or it may have simply sneaked in and out when I wasn’t looking which was most of the time.

 

One of the 7 birds ringed, Goldfinch (Carduelis carduelis)

Another of the 7 birds ringed, Starling (Sturnus vulgaris)

Some light rain eventually developed and caused me to take the net down around midday. Seven new birds isn’t a bad total for the garden and the 5 new Goldfinches brought the total ringed in the garden to 142 with 140 having been ringed since early September. This is my best ever total for Goldfinches ringed in the garden. The turkey didn’t turn out too bad either.

 

The only bird roasted, Turkey (Bogus standardus) but it was covered in bacon and stuffed with onion, lemon, apple and orange. The onions were then used with the meat juices to make the gravy and so on......

I will need to top up the feeders at Haigh tomorrow and may put up one or two nets if the weather allows. Hopefully there will be a chance for a few more Bramblings before the year is out.