Two Weeks Down And One Ton Up

So it's the end of my second week of ringing in the garden, this week though I have had less opportunities to put a net up. I have still managed to catch a total of 102 birds so far - so exciting!

No big surprises - although Bullfinches continue to flood in! In the last post I mentioned how I had caught five adult Bullfinches in my first week, with three unringed birds still coming to the feeders... Well I have now caught an incredible 15! I just don't know where they are all coming from!???

So what we thought were no more than four birds, are actually (with at least two unringed adults and three unringed juveniles still in the garden) 20! 14 of the Bullies I've caught were adults; nine males and five females - I'm surprised I have only caught one juvenile as young birds always seem to be less net aware. All the females I have caught have shown nice brood patches, like this one...

Looks gross doesn't it!?

It was nice to catch a couple of juvenile Goldfinches, and Greenfinches seem to have had an excellent breeding season with juvs flying into the net left right and centre!

Since my last post, I've only had one moth trapping night - last Friday. It was a bit wet, quite windy, so not very productive. I only caught 34 moths of 5 species...

1 White Ermine
1 Heart and Club
28 Heart and Dart
3 Ingrailed Clay
1 Beautiful Golden Y

This was only the second Beautiful Golden Y I've ever caught in the garden - so trapping was worthwhile

I have done very little birding on patch this past week - with a Hobby low west over Colyford the best of what I've seen. I saw it whilst searching for the bird that has gripped us all!!!!!

Now time to go totally off topic!

Last weekend, due to a friend's birthday, I enjoyed a trip to the Zoo. And here are a few pics from our day out to complete this blog post....