Tuesday 5 December 2017

Marsworth - 5th December 2017 - A high net for Redwings

Weather: calm, dull, slight mist.
Ringers LL and CMS
07:00 - 10:15
Nets: 300'
Lures: Redwing, Reed Bunting, Corn Bunting

We have not been having much success this year with the Latvian Redwing tape lure, just one bird at a time so Claire and I decided to make a more concerted effort this morning. We used one of my North Ron "thrush" nets that have a slightly bigger mesh and nice big pockets and we set it high. We used five sectional poles on each end giving us a pole length of about 4.5m (15ft). We tape the top three poles together with some duck tape for extra stability and to prevent the top pole flying off when you push the net up. The first net round gave us a Blackbird and a single Redwing but the next time round as I approached the net a huge female Sparrowhawk dived down over my shoulder into the net, it crashed around a bit and in typical fashion got out before I could get to it. She flew off and sat in the trees close by - the seven Redwings in the net were obviously interesting her!! We had to take the net down as she would definitely have come back but we were pretty happy with a tally of eight Redwings. I heard Redwings flying overhead last night so I think they are still arriving in our area and today's birds were all juvenile apart from one, whereas the birds caught up to now have been mainly adults.
Lynne


Total
New Bird
Retrap
Blackbird
1
1

Blue Tit
5
1
4
Bullfinch
1
1

Goldcrest
1

1
Great Tit
1

1
Redwing
8
8

Reed Bunting
7
4
3
Song Thrush
1
1

Total
25
16
9

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