Today's session in theory looked a good
one, heavy frost, lots of Redwing, and a few Fieldfare had been going over the
house for the last week or so, but upon setting up at first light we flushed
around 50 or so Fieldfare out of the orchard, which had the feeling of not
boding well, and it did not, as they did not come down again in this particular
orchard, with 50-100 seen feeding in the other adjacent orchards. Despite
having the Redwing tape playing it only pulled one in, plus later a female
Sparrowhawk, with the only other bird caught being a single Blackbird. So in
all, a rather frustrating day, with lots of Fieldfare around, none coming into
the orchard where we had set up. One thing that might have helped is setting
up the night before and opening the nets half an hour before dawn, which might give
one decent catch, though probably just the one, but that would be better
result than the one we had.
Sparrowhawk - 3 female
Redwing - 3
Totals: 3
Sparrowhawk - 1
Blackbird - 1
Redwing - 1