The stars were out as we set the nets and with the wind straight out of the north bringing the temperature to -1°c it was a rather frosty and chilly start to the morning.
The good news was that even after 2 breeding seasons of complete nesting failure due to the weather and females not turning up, the first Nightingale's were back. Three were singing and were quickly targeted coming to a tape lure along with a fourth that hadn't been singing. Over the years we had been gradually having less and less sucess in catching the returning males and it seems that the reason may be that the birds are too used to the song that gets played to them. A German study shows that Nightingale's learn the songs of other birds around them and incorporate some of those song phrases into their own. With this in mind I'd download a selection of Nightingale songs from across Europe and these seem to have done the trick. Now that they've been caught we won't need to target them again. The original ringing dates for the 4 birds cought were 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2012. With some of these birds now getting on in years they need a good breeding season so that they are not lost from this site, one of only a handful left in the county.
The northerly breeze that had been blowing all night did however effect the number of birds we caught with numbers well down on the last visit and after the first few net rounds the morning was more or less done. We did however catch a Grasshopper Warbler we ringed here last year, the first ever year to year retrap we've caught of this species despite ringing over 100 at this site. Two pulli Stock Dove's were an extra bonus after we'd packed up early due to the increasing wind. PD/GD/OF
Stock Dove 2, Wren 1(2), Dunnock 1(2), Nightingale (4), Blackbird 2, Song Thrush 1, Grasshopper Warbler 1(1), Whitethroat 1, Blackcap 18(3), Chiffchaff 2(5), Willow Warnler 2(2), Long Tailed Tit (1), Bullfinch 3(1), Chaffinch 1(1), Linnet 6
