Something brighter on a blustery day!

I have been without internet for the past few days, hence the lack of my usual weekly update. Whilst the weather today has been positively blustery, the weather yesterday wasn't so bad and Moxey was able to get into Ince Blundell and catch around 50 birds, mainly made up of titmice. This follows on from a productive Saturday morning at Brook Vale that saw a young male Sprawk disrupt the 70-80 Fieldfare and 60-70 Redwing that were trying to get caught in the line. We did however ring four Redwing and the Sprawk. Total ringed ended up as 59, cut short by a rain shower that became persistant.

Sunday was a different story. A frost and a missing mp3 player meant we weren't at full potential catching capacity, but I did manage to catch and ring my first Woodcock. Interestingly it has since been blogged elsewhere that there were observed movements of Woodcock over the weekend and into Monday. The Woodcock was the only highlight however and a total of 13 birds were ringed, before an early dart and a hot shower!Since the weekend, I have added more feeders at Fulwood which seem to be taking a bit of a battering and Moxey reports good activity at Crosby Hall and Brook Vale. The weekend forecast doesn't look promising, but hopefully we'll manage to squeeze a few hours in somewhere, especially at dawn, to try and boost our totals of Redwing (the highest we have had in the group for a number of years).

To brighten those that are looking at a weekend that is forecasted to be too windy to mist net, here are some previously un-posted pictures of my most recent Portugal trip (October Half Term).

Getting some ringing in at Taipal

Ageing and sexing Penduline Tits according to Svennson

Short-toed Treecreeper (C. brachydactyla)

Cetti's Warblers enjoy a challenge!

Taipal in the morning

Firecrest

The ringing team at Veiga da S. Simao

Sunset at Viana do Castelo after the Nictocorax

Tó Pereira looking out over the Lima River at Veiga da S. Simao