It started off a nice morning with a gentle south westerly that meant that we could actually fit in some ringing for a short time, before the wind turned very strong. We caught 13 birds including 1 Blue Tit, 3 Dunnock, 3 Chiffchaff, 1 Robin, 3 Long-tailed Tit and 2 Goldfinch. Two of the Long-tailed Tit were caught together, a male and female, both with signs of breeding condition – the female had a completely defeathered belly with a brood patch starting. One of the Chiffchaff was a control (a bird ringed elsewhere), so it’ll be interesting to see where that’s came from!

Otherwise around the obs there was 1 Crossbill and 2 Siskin. A Peregrine came shooting over the pines mid morning. There were quite a few Red Kite around and we were treated to a food pass between a pair. There was still a Cattle Egret with the cows. On Holme Marsh there were 2 Blackcap and 11 Chiffchaff singing.

There was a bit more diversity in the moth traps with 9 Hebrew Character, 1 Double Striped Pug, 3 Clouded Drab, 1 Powdered Quaker, 2 Small Quaker, 2 V-Pug and 1 Pine Beauty.

Shannon