Manor Farm Country Park Again....

This morning started with a pre-dawn start at Manor Farm Country Park. Overnight a thick fog had formed which made for a very damp and somewhat eerie feel, which was enhanced by the very vocal Barn Owls. I opted to put the usual nets up in the hope of catching some more Redwing, or maybe even a Fieldfare, and was rewarded with a couple of new Redwing, both first winters. There were very few thrushes around, so I was very pleased to have caught any, and especially as these will probably be the last ones I get to ring until they return in the autumn.

First year Redwing

Other species captured included Blackbirds, Wrens and a few Dunnocks, two of which were retraps. Both of the the retraps were over a year old, but the individual pictured below was originally captured on 8th July 2007, 4 years 247 days previously.

Adult Dunnock

In a previous post I discussed the difficulties associated with ageing Dunnocks and this individual, had it not already been ringed, would have probably been left unaged. However, the brightly coloured eye and the all black bill would have aged this bird as an adult, had it been caught in the autumn.

Adult male Goldcrest

Another bird that I was reacquainted with this morning was this male Goldcrest, who was originally captured on 6th April 2010, 1 year 126 days previously. He was in full song for much of the morning and raising his crest up in display to the accompanying female

Gold crest of the male Goldcrest

During the session there was a flock of five Bullfinch's feeding tantalisingly close to my net ride, but alas they were too engrossed in their meal to move along the hedge to my net.