North Wilts Group

20th March 2015 - Swindon STW

 
I arrived on site at 5am to chilly, but relatively windless conditions. An astronomically rare event was occurring this morning-Paul and I would be ringing without our leader. There was another celestial event due which i couldn't remember what it was. I spotted a headtorch in the gloom which was Matt chucking a few wader nets around for good measure. Paul arrived and we set about putting up our faithful 'line of three' and 'bund' nets. It was going to be a modest session to see if we could entice any migrant Chiffs, or early Blackcaps out of the bushes. We had potter traps primed and ready between the leachate ditch and the river to possibly add that extra variety. Our leader- not wanting to eclipse our independance-cleared away late morning, but not before Paul had come back from a potter trap check with a Coot!
 
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Judging from the bout of Tourettes it sounded like it had given him a hard time out of the potter trap. It came at him like Cato leaping out on Inspector Clouseau, those massive Kenny Everett feet windmilling towards him like rice flails. We don't do many Coot at all, and I think it was Paul's first ringed. We managed to age it as a 6 after some scrutiny. We set it down and it ran up all the bund steps and Kung-Fooed off into the distance. Coots and Eclipses are abit like Jack-they don't turn up very often. The rest of the session was characterised by Great Tits mainly, but Linnet and 3 Greeninches were a nice bonus, as was our first migrant Chiffs. One of the Chiffs had congealed nectar around its beak possibly indicating some exotic fuel stop.
 
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The Moon took a chunk out of the Sun around 9:30, but other than a temperature drop there didn't seem to be any discernable effect on the birds. Wildlife Trust volunteers Gordon and Mike arrived with tea and buns mid-morning which went down very well.  Paul left behind apple pie for us which passed in front of my mouth but didn't emerge. A steady session ended in Spring sunshine with 24 new and 16 retraps. PA  SW
 
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Blackbird 2, Chiffchaff 4, Greenfinch 3, Coot 1, Linnet 1, Bullfinch 1, Great Tit 9 (7), Robin 1 (1), Blue Tit 2 (3), Reed Bunting (4), Long-Tailed Tit (1), Dunnock (1)