Monday, October 18, 2021
Will had maintained the bird feeding in his Garstang garden and promised us a good catch when the weather allowed the three of us, Will, Ian and I to finally make it there. The forecast was accurate but we were well prepared, paying due respect to the zero temperatures by donnning extra layers, woolly hats and thermals.
66 birds kept us fairly busy and stopped our fingers seizing up from the cold which hovered around freezing point all morning. Sue kindly provided us with copious coffee in hand warming mugs, not to mention the bacon butties that came with the compulsory brown sauce, all of which also kept the cold at bay; Garden ringing can be so civilized compared to some of the grotty situations that we ringers often find ourselves in.
66 birds kept us fairly busy and stopped our fingers seizing up from the cold which hovered around freezing point all morning. Sue kindly provided us with copious coffee in hand warming mugs, not to mention the bacon butties that came with the compulsory brown sauce, all of which also kept the cold at bay; Garden ringing can be so civilized compared to some of the grotty situations that we ringers often find ourselves in.
Although the Chaffinch were a bit slow arriving, the Siskin were there from the off, calling excitedly from the tops of the alders in the half light and we caught three of them on the first net round then another later on when the tardy Chaffinch arrived for a feed.
The four hour session saw us catch the following birds, of which pretty much 50% comprised finch species:
Siskin 4
Goldfinch 6
Chaffinch 21
Blue Tit 17
Coal Tit 3
Blackbird 3
Great Tit 7
Dunnock 1
Robin 2
Nuthatch 1
We caught an interesting adult male Goldfinch that had flecks of yellow/gold in the red of the plumage around its head. I wouldn’t say we catch many Goldfinch in the course of a year but perhaps enough to say we may have seen this before, but none of us had. Picture below.
