Saturday 18th June

It was pretty quiet around the park this morning but at least the rain held off for most of it. There are still plenty of migrants around with Blackcap and Garden Warbler singing in and around the Rough. A male Cuckoo was also present most of the morning.

100 Acre was also pretty quiet, the highlight being 4 Redshanks.

EG was ringing in the Rough again and everybody ended up there. Myself and JA missed out on the Marsh Tit that was caught and ringed, as we were still back at the STW at that time. However we were in time for a bumper haul when a party of Long-tailed Tits were caught along with a handful of other birds. It was all hands on deck to get the birds processed and released as quickly as possible. As the Long-tailed Tits were a family party they were processed last and held for release together. As the ringers processed the birds I handed out rings and JA turned scribe in order to keep the capture time as short as possible. Along with DK we all released a couple of the LTTs each, at the same time so the family stayed together.

While in the Rough JA spotted a Hobby overhead and we all had good views of it's aerobatic skills as it soared and dived in search of prey. Later a Common Buzzard drifted over north east, again giving great views.

The heavy showers finally caught up with us just after we released the LTTs so having sat out the rain under the Hawthorns in the Rough we decided to call it a day and left EG to complete his ringing session.

Next Sunday is the next guided bird walk and it's an 8am start, see you there.