Pretty Lady

On Thursday 7th April I arrived home from work earlier than expected, the first thing on my mind was to get a net up as quickly as possible. A few Chiffs and Blackcaps had been heard nearby earlier in the week.
At 15:20 one 40' mist net was erected, on first inspection it held 2 birds, a male Greenfinch and a superb Firecrest! This was a belated first for the garden at Ormesby.
It was a 1st. summer female with a fat score of 3, so must have been in for a while and presumably feeding up to make the next journey further North. This is also our first ever Firecrest  trapped in the Spring.

'Pretty Lady'

5F Firecrest

It was quality and not quantity this afternoon, with the next round producing a fine male Great Spotted Woodpecker.

5M Pecker

Looking impressed with himself.

The final net round produced another superb bird in the form of an adult Rook. These are really superb at close quarters when metallic blue hues really stand out. For such a big bird they are very gentle in the hand.

This was the first one ever to be mist netted in the garden, all the others had been whoosh netted or in the large trap.

Mr Softy

Adult Rook

2 Greenfinch and a Goldfinch were the only other birds ringed, a Chaffinch was retrapped and was originally ringed on 24th Feb. 2009. 

So all in all not a bad  couple of hours ringing.

A walk in the evening along Caister beach produced 3 Sand Martins going North and 2 Turnstone on the rocks.