Saturday, May 26, 2007

Friday 25th May

Green Flag inspection day. Also visit 3 of the Constant Effort survey. 28 birds caught including a Jay - that energetically flapped free of my, now slightly dodgy, left hand on its way to be ringed!
The first bird of the day was an adult (2yr+) female Bullfinch that had severe schlerosis of the legs caused by a typical avian mange. Early on, 3 adult Garden warblers - one of them (f) at least 5 years old and another, a female, returning to the site where she was raised last year. A female Chiffchaff retrap, a couple of Blackcaps (m&f), a Wren (m), two Dunnocks (f), a Greenfinch (m), a Blackbird (m) and a Reed Warbler (m) made up the rest of the adults.
Five young, spotty Robins were caught, a mother Blue Tit and her brood, of which threelike mum, failed to avoid the net, two young Long-tailed Tits and two more juvenile Song Thrushes. [That makes three males and four juvvies this month - unprecedented!] Best of all, a very young Blackcap, just out of the nest, but capable of 'low level' flight, nonetheless.
Overhead, up to 16 House Martins and an unseasonal Herring Gull

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