We decided to try and squeeze in a visit into the apple farm before the forecasted wind and rain came in around midday. The visit did not produce any of the hoped for Thrushes, though a few Fieldfare and Redwing were present in the area. The one thing the visit did show was that time spent in the field birding will provide a bonus for ringing visits, as it will provide an indication of what areas birds are favouring and where the good feeding areas are. This being the first visit to the site for a while, we had no idea where the birds were feeding or what food was available. After setting up we had a walk around to find that the amount of left over apples this year was probably the best in three years and there were a number of rows that were worth setting nets along, further away from the adjacent houses that we set up alongside at the start of the session. The session was very much dominated by Tits and in all we had 36 birds, of which six were re-traps.
Jay - 3
Chaffinch - 3 male
Totals:
Wren -1
Dunnock -1
Robin - 2
Blackbird -1
Goldcrest -1
Blue Tit - 15 (4)
Great Tit - 6 (2)
Jay -1
Chaffinch -1
Goldfinch - 1
A brief session in the garden at home later in the day resulted in the Goldfinch rung earlier at the orchard being re-trapped coming into the garden feeders.
