A morning spent with PWL & EGB at this very good farmland winter site. There are still lots of birds on site but the behaviour is changing and small flocks of finches and buntings are now moving between bird crop areas rather than there being some birds in all areas at any one time. The hedges were trimmed in January and topping of the bird crop has now started leaving any nets much more obvious with less vegetation to disguise their presence.
We managed to catch 19 birds altogether. Ten were new, and half of these Dunnocks, including a female already with BP2. Amongst the retrap birds were another 5 Dunnocks and a Reed Bunting that we had ringed on 7th November, our first day of monitoring here.
CL made a brief survey of the fields and wood with the thermal imager and found no signatures for Woodcock at all. They had been very jumpy when he tried dazzling on two evenings in the previous week, usually a sign that they will soon leave their wintering grounds and the mid weather may have already induced them to depart.
We are very grateful to the landowner who had granted access for monitoring to take place on his land.
Totals: 10 (9)
Blackbird - 1
Chaffinch - 1
Dunnock - 5 (5)
Long-tailed Tit - 2 (3)
Reed Bunting - 1 (1)