Garden hat-trick and more Linnets

The weekend started well with Mel ringing me on Friday while I was at work to say there was a Hawfinch in the garden ( at Ormesby St. Margaret) feeding on the seed in the whoosh net area !!!!! After a few expletives I calmed down and said are you sure, the answer was a positive yes. I should not have doubted her as we have had 2 in the garden before and Mel has seen and identified them on her own before I had seen them !
Luckily I managed to get home early and the net was hastily set, after about an hour's wait that seemed an eternity the Hawfinch turned up.  I had made earlier phone calls to the other members of the group to try and get some one over to ring it as I had done the last one, sadly no one could make it so I had to ring it myself !

Female Hawfinch

Female Hawfinch Tail

Unfortunately no full frame photo's were taken , the bird was very active and brutally inflicted pain with its large bill ! 

This is the hat-trick for the garden with a Female ringed in May 2000 and a Male ringed in June 2006.

Only another 5/6 years to the next one then boy's !

Also present in the garden was a male Reed Bunting, only the second ever seen and caught (rarer than the Hawfinch !). On Saturday a Female Brambling and 3 Siskins (first of the year ) were seen but not trapped.

Also seen on Saturday was a Brimstone butterfly.

A trip to Caister beach on Saturday morning produced another 17 Linnets with 15 new, 1 control and a retrap from last week.

Male Linnet, control L692066

Adult (4/6) type tail feathers.

The only other birds of note were 32 Red throated Diver flying North offshore.
Also we may have a clue to where some of the seed is going, there were several tracks in the sand leading to the food and from it, we followed one back which led to a hole in the dunes with half eaten seed near the entrance. Obviously the work of some Vole/mouse species.

Trail of the seed thief 

Been busy.