On the first day of autumn, here is the ringing round up of species processed in the garden during August. Food continued to disappear quickly. In addition we frequently ran the little ornamental fountain to provide a reliable source of water for the birds during the driest, hottest spells. We also used a couple of shallow dishes to collect water as some birds prefer to drink away from the spout where water bubbles out. It was interesting to observe different behaviours when birds came to drink. Some days, birds would wait in the Laurel bush for the drinking area to come free, some birds liked to paddle about where the water spilled off of the cuboid feature, some actually drank from the fountain itself, while others preferred to sip from the dishes. We witnessed whole scale bathing, sufficient to displace the shells and stones placed to ensure an easy exit for any small animals that climbed onto the dishes and one particular Blackbird loved his ablutions and actively drove birds away, holding a temporary territory for up to 20 minutes at a time while he enjoyed the water and kept it all to himself.
There were some decent periods of low wind so we used both 6m nets to try and capitalise on the birds coming, including some tit flocks, at the cooler times of the day. Best bird was a Lesser Whitethroat, captured just a metre from the fountain and given a drink before being processed as it was only there for water.
Total: 119 (31)
Woodpigeon - 1
Blackbird - 10 (1)
Robin - 2 (2)
Dunnock - 10 (9)
Lesser Whitethroat - 1
Blackcap - 5
Long-tailed Tit - 10 (3)
Coal Tit - 1
Blue Tit - 53 (10)
Great Tit - 11 (3)
Chaffinch - 1
Greenfinch - 10 (2)
House Sparrow - 4 (1)