With the forecast for this morning being for the weather to be drying between 6:00 and 8:00 and then staying dry until lunchtime, with reasonable wind speeds, I decided on a woodland session. As I was being joined by Jonny alone, I gave him the choice of where to go. As he hadn't done Siskin, he chose Webb's Wood. The forecast did not play out as expected: the wind spent most of the session coming from the west, but it was cold enough that it had to be easterly in origin. Perhaps the wind was being funnelled along and around the tracks of the wood. Equally, the showers remained intermittent all morning and we ended the session early as rain started to become more persistent at about 9:45 and continued throughout most of the day. Despite the weather, we had a reasonable session and Jonny got to process his first Siskin.
Of interest, we retrapped a Great Tit, ring number VZ86483, which is not one of my rings. With the retrapping of the bird from Lower Moor Farm on Saturday, and now this bird which has moved a significant distance (the nearest sites to mine are either Waterhay (~14km, John Wells) or Swindon Sewage Works (~12km, Matt Prior)) the Handbook of the Birds of the Western Palearctic might have to rewrite the piece that says "P. m. newtoni of Britain and Ireland seldom moves far. Post-fledging dispersal in Oxford area (Southern England) is generally measured in hundreds of metres". As well as the controlled Great Tit, we retrapped a 3 year old Coal Tit from my second ever session on the site.
The list for the morning was, New (Retrap): Blue Tit 2(7); Great Tit (5); Coal Tit (2); Long-tailed Tit 1; Chaffinch 2; Siskin 4(1). Totals: 9 new from 4 species and 15 retraps from 4 species. ST / JC