Good things come in twos.

It's been much of a muchness since my last blog. Somethings are moving, some others have gone and yet more are to arrive.

I have managed to ring in our small orchard on the even days of the week from sunrise 'til 10-ish, by which time the sun has risen quite a way and spotlighted the net(s). It has been steady and pretty reasonable for a small set-up like we have here. Things will improve as soon as we are able to return to the meadows, once the willows and alders sprout their leaves. But I'll probably catch a Chiffchaff in the garden before that happens.

2CY female Siskin

Noticeable was the pairs of Greenfinch that I caught every day. One day I was blessed with a male and female Siskin in the net inches apart, only the third and fourth of the year so far. Another day, three Goldfinches - although we had just had a cold, cloudless night. Not the local birds, since they all know the way to approach the feeders containing sunflower hearts and seldom make a mistake.

2CY male Siskin

Another duo, this time of female Blackbirds, found the short net across our small shrubbery. So far this winter I have ringed or retrapped 25 male Blackbirds, but, with these two, just 13 female birds. There's something going on here but, as yet, I have not fathomed it out. There are also twice as many 2CY birds as full adults (Euring class 6) of both sexes, which is about par for this time of year - if the previous breeding season was a good one.

So, this week's tally comes to 18 new (&9 r/t) of 11 spp.:
Woodpigeon (1) - a very fat male!
Great Tit 2
Blackcap (1) - the long-staying female from the New Year
Blackbird 2 (3)
Robin (2)
Dunnock 1 (1)
House Sparrow 1
Chaffinch 1
Greenfinch 6 (1) - r/t was originally caught in mid-Jan 2011 as a 6M
Goldfinch 3
Siskin 2

However, the week didn't end there.
My new trainee was back from Cuba and wanted to brave the colder air. So, in order to get a feel for the impending spring, I set four nets in one of the meadows the night before. We didn't bargain for the weather, though! Fog had been forecast most mornings but there had been no signs of it in the village, but we could see it capping the top of the Quantocks. Today proved otherwise; dense, wet FOG, hanging on the nets that I had put up the night before. We were right cheesed off but stuck it out. Just as well we did, because our first "hit" was a pair of 2CY Kingfishers, the male being one I ringed here last August when it still had 'brown legs'. They were busy all morning defending their territory downstream of the bridge, once released.

2CY Kingfishers - male above, female below

The rest of the session was rather rubbish, as one would expect in the circumstances but it did give us a chance to have a 'recce' prior to the season kicking off. 8 VTOL Redwing departed at first light, a Song Thrush sang non-stop for 4 hours and a Dipper 'buzzed' through. As I was packing up, a hungry Chiff was hunting spiders in the cracks of the stone walls beside the bridge.

GT = 5 new (&5 r/t)
Kingfisher 1 (1) - new female
Blue Tit 1 (1)
Great Tit 1 (2)
Wren 1
Dunnock 1 (1)
... and the nets are in the airing cupboard - along with my boots!

Here's to Spring! [summer-time starts in a fortnight!!!] I expect it will arrive with gales and rain! [I'm usually an optimist] We'll see!