A farm in North Norfolk - 6th November 2026

 A rather strange morning today. We went to work a field where the wild bird crop had failed. Some quinoa with little else, but no more than knee high with broad areas of bare earth, this was really only to confirm that the buntings and finches would not be using it in any large numbers, and we were absolutely right. A net in the centre of the field caught nothing despite playing the usual farmland species audio-lures.

We had also put two singles near the hedgerow and tried playing Reed Bunting and Chaffinch, then Redpoll and Redwing as we could hear them overhead and although not an ideal location got 4 Mealy Redpolls.

Despite the poor numbers of finches and buntings, there were a lot of Dunnocks and Robins about, many more than we managed to catch in fact and we ended up with 14 Dunnocks on the recording sheet. Six Robins were caught and one of these was already carrying a ring from the Stavanger, Norway scheme. There was also a male Blackcap in one of the nets with a couple of those Robins. This bird was marked with colour rings for the wintering Blackcaps project.

 Later in the morning there was a second Blackcap, it seemed to have worked its way through the field, like the first, and it went into one of the nets set along the hedgerow. Being November, Blackcap had not been one of the recordings used to encourage birds towards the net since the summer migrants have left weeks ago and wintering Blackcaps, some being known to originate from Germany, are present in very low numbers. We tried a tape and actually got a third! All birds were male and all are now marked for the wintering Blackcaps project. The three birds had fat scores of 4,3 &1.

Age 3 Robin with Norwegian ring

3M Blackcap, fat 4 muscle 2

One of 4 Mealy Redpolls

One of 14 Dunnocks

This unexpected movement of birds through the field made for an interesting morning, even though we only got one of the target farmland birds.

Total:34 (1)

Blackbird - 1
Blackcap - 3
Blue Tit - 1
Chaffinch - 1
Dunnock - 14
Goldcrest - 2
Mealy Redpoll - 4
Robin - 5 (1 control Stavanger, Norway)
Wren - 3

Deepdale Farm, lamping and owling - 3rd November 2026

 One of the great things about ringing is that you can experience something new, no matter how long since you trained and got your permit. This session is a good example, a site where we've done similar sessions before over the last few years, but this time it was different.

Chris went of lamping after we'd got a 12m and 15m owl net combination up and I settled down to wait. I didn't hold out much hope of a capture as the thermal imager wasn't picking up any owl activity at all. After 25 minutes I went to the net and as expected found no owls. On rechecking the net with the thermal, once getting back to the car I could see a heat signature, but it wasn't an owl and didn't look right for a bat either. It turned out to be a Starling. The extraction was difficult from the 60mm mesh net, but 15 minutes later it had been extracted, ringed and released southwards away from the sea wall.  

I couldn't believe it when just a few minutes later there was a similar heat signature from the net. Another Starling that had entered from the seaward side. Thankfully, this extraction was easier and as my headlight was apparently attracting incoming migrating Starlings the nets were pushed up before processing the bird. I had no wish to get more Starlings, singles were bad enough and there are large numbers of Starlings that we usually see around this site at this time of year, so arriving birds could be in quite sizable flocks.

Once the bird had been processed and released I got the nets in to avoid catching anymore.

First Woodcock of the season

Snipe

Chris returned and was surprised to see the nets in and the equipment all by the car. He had returned with a couple of Skylarks, a Snipe and a Woodcock. Not a bad result for his first lamping sortie of this winter, but I'll have to wait for my first owl.

Total:

Skylark -2
Snipe - 1
Starling - 2
Woodcock - 1

Salthouse Garden - 31st October 2026

 A quieter day when Redpolls turning up in small numbers was the main interest. Towards the end of the morning it got a little busier when a flock of tits turned up together, but Goldcrests were conspicuous by their absence and that was a little puzzling given the weather conditions.

Lesser Redpoll male

A sheltered spot for a net

Mealy Redpoll

Totals: 26 (5)

Blue Tit - 10 (4)
Great Tit - 2
Lesser Redpoll - 5
Long-tailed Tit - 2
Mealy Redpoll - 7
Robin - 0 (1)