GEDSER - 2nd October

Rain overnight followed by light south-easterlies throughout the day with varying amounts of cloud cover and a few more spots of rain here and there produced another monstrous day of ringing with an excellent total of 806 new birds caught; the bulk of the birds were made up of 392 Robins, 101 Chiffchaffs and 209 Goldcrests along with 19 Song Thrushes, 17 Blackcaps and 29 Chaffinches while other bits and highlights included the third Yellow-browed Warbler of the autumn, 8 Redstarts, 2 Reed Warblers, a Garden Warbler, 2 Willow Warblers, 3 Siskins and 5 Lesser Redpolls.

                There was little time to look around to see what was elsewhere but the occasional glance overhead produced a good mix of birds including a Woodlark, a nice flock of 22 Mistle Thrush, 4 Cranes, a couple of Honey Buzzards, a few Common Buzzards and Sparrowhawks and several flocks of Barnacle Geese and ducks with small numbers of Grey Wagtails, Tree Pipits, Swallows and Skylarks with the usual passage of Finches, White Wagtails and Meadow Pipits.   Also picked out in the garden were a second, unringed Yellow-browed Warbler and a Firecrest.

                With the huge number of birds, limited number of people and a cautious approach to the weather we didn’t open a few nets and closed some halfway through so the number of birds caught would have been a relatively small percentage of the actual number of birds passing through the garden – an awesome day!