'Bootiful'

It was a 'bootiful' morning on Saturday, hardly a breath of wind and very mild temperatures. Mist netting was cut short as the sun came up and lit the nets up, it was a pleasant 21 degrees when we packed up.
Birds were a bit thin on the ground , with no obvious ' vis mig' going on.
34 new birds were ringed and for the second time this Autumn no retraps were caught, where have all the local birds gone ?
 The first Goldcrests and Lesser Redpolls of the Autumn were caught.

1st. year Male Goldcrest

Wren 2

Dunnock 2

Robin 2

Blackcap 5, All with good fat reserves.

Chiffchaff 4

Goldcrest 3

Blue Tit 2

Treecreeper 3, unusual to catch  3 in a day at this site

Chaffinch 1

Lesser Redpoll 10, A flock of 18 were flying around.

1st. year Male Lesser Redpoll

Several Common Darters were seen bathing in the sunshine as well as a few Red Admiral.

Common Darter

Swallow Roost

At last the wind abated to give us an opportunity to try a Swallow roost at Martham Pits. 
Dave had checked the site on Wednesday night and had 70 to 100 birds go in, with this in mind we assembled on Thursday evening with fingers crossed hoping some would hang around.
It was fairly quiet at first with about 20 flying around the pits.The nets were checked early on in case anything had gone in unnoticed, 3 Reed Warblers and a Cettis were extracted.
 As the evening progressed the Swallows began to arrive, with about 70 flying about at one point.These were flying quite high and seemed to fly off East to roost somewhere else!
As we approached the nets the usual mutterings were said, ' no birds again',' why didn't they come down', ' should have been here last night ' .... etc. 
Luckily some had stayed and were ready to be extracted from the nets.

Adult male Swallow

In the end 37 Swallow were ringed with 23 1st year birds, 7 adult males and 7 adult females.

Also 3 Reed Warblers and a Cettis Warbler were newly ringed.

We went back to the comfort of Tony's to do the ringing and he also kindly supplied the refreshments.

Chiff's on the move.

We arrived at Winterton just after dawn on Saturday 10th Sept, conditions were very muggy, complete cloud cover and a light SW getting fresher as the morning wore on, by the time we packed up it was a nice 21 degrees C.
As the nets were erected 2 or 3 Chiff's were heard calling, but not much else. Luckily we were in for a few more than that.  It was a good morning for Chiff's and Blackcaps with the added bonus of a juv Spotfly.

The first full grown Spotted Flycatcher we have ringed since 2001!

45 new birds were ringed, amazingly no retraps were caught.

Wren 1

Dunnock 1

Robin 2

Blackbird 1

Whitethroat 1, A late moulting adult.

Blackcap 13 ,  10 Males and 3 Females.  All juveniles apart from one.

Chiffchaff 17, 2 adults the rest juveniles.

Spotted Flycatcher 1

Long-tailed Tit 2

Blue Tit 4

Great Tit 1

Bullfinch 1, an adult female still with a brood patch.

Dave and friend.

A Swift was seen flying over and a Marsh Harrier flew South down the dunes.

Several Speckled Wood butterflies were still on the wing with numerous Common Darter's about, including the male that took a liking to Dave's hat! A Migrant Hawker was also seen.