GEDSER - 23rd October

Dry, overcast conditions with light winds produced yet another epic day of ringing as we caught another 778 new birds through another all-day session; 468 Goldcrests obviously again dominated, forcing us to close all the nets at one stage but it was the record breaking and ludicrous 189 Wrens (including a Swedish ringed individual) that was the feature of the day – the nets were just full of them at dawn with birds flying in to the net by your head as you were extracting another, bonkers!

                Other ringing highlights included an excellent 19 Northern Bullfinches, a Firecrest, a very late Yellow Wagtail (sounding and looking normal unfortunately!), 24 Chiffchaffs, 4 Treecreepers and 2 Blackcaps.

Again, especially in the morning there was little time to look around or up in the sky but overhead passage was reduced from previous days but there were still decent flocks of Thrushes, Finches and Woodpigeons departing Scandinavia; raptors were also prominent with several Rough-legged Buzzards and Red Kites, a Hen Harrier, a couple of Common Buzzards and many Sparrowhawks seen over the garden.   Other birds picked out through the day included a brilliant flock of 130 Cranes, a Serin in the afternoon, 3 Hawfinches, quite a few Northern Bullfinch and Crossbill flocks often just heard calling overhead and a big flock of Northern Long-tailed Tits which sped through the garden without getting caught.

 

Yellow Wagtail

Silly numbers!