More warblers and a Wood Pig

The weather forecast for Thursday 2nd May was perfect......5mph winds and a day of sun. Well, the wind speed was ideal but a bit more cloud would have been better than sunshine as the nets become more visible when it's brighter. Anyway, as I was working in the afternoon and I had a morning free, I couldn't miss the opportunity of spending a few hours catching a few more passage migrants.
I was aware of the groups first ever CES session which was planned for Saturday so I stayed away from the CES area and concentrated on erecting my nets from the feeding station to the point. This long straight margin of grassland and Hawthorn scrub has always produced good numbers of warblers during past years and today proved to be no different.
Common & Lesser Whitethroat, Blackcap, Sedge & Willow Warbler and this years first Reed Warbler. However, no Chiffchaffs or Reed Buntings were caught, unlike Linnets, which seemed to everywhere with pairs flying back and forth all morning
A Woodpigeon was a nice surprise in the first round although it was a pity there wasn't a trainee present to ring it as it isn't often they get the practice to apply large rings.
Whilst I sat on a bench between net rounds a Willow Warbler appeared within a few yards in front of me with a beak full of nesting material. It quickly dropped into the vegetation and popped up again a few seconds later and flew away. I waited a couple of minutes for it's return, this time after it descended into the long grass I got my chance to pinpoint it's exit point. I found the nest easily, about three quarters complete! I will be keeping my eye on it's progress!
It was an all round enjoyable morning with 65 birds of 17 species processed.
New/retrap
Woodpigeon 1/0
Wren 2/2
Dunnock 2/6
Blackbird 0/1
Song Thrush 0/2
Sedge Warbler 2/3
Reed Warbler 1/0
Lesser Whitethroat 3/0
Common Whitethroat 5/5
Blackcap 2/0
Willow Warbler 2/7
Blue Tit 2/5
Great Tit 0/4
Tree Sparrow 1/1
Chaffinch 1/0
Linnet 4/0
Bullfinch 1/0