WET and WINDY ......October review

After the staggeringly brilliant September, October turned into a bit of a damp squib, with wind and rain a plenty curtailing many of our ringing sessions. So to achieve our second best monthly total of 858 for October was a great effort. The warbler totals dropped off dramatically from what we had in September but we still had 5 species with the latest dates being Reed Warbler 18th, Willow Warbler caught 15th retrapped 18th, Blackcap 23rd, Chiffchaff 25th and finally our first Cetti's Warbler of the year also on the 25th. The most notable totals for the month were a staggering 41 Wrens, where are they all coming from? The usual movement of tits through the area produced 96 Blue Tits plus 2 controls and 59 Great Tit, Tree Sparrows numbered 84 pushing the annual total to over 500. We also managed 207 Greenfinch and 82 Goldfinch both being good totals for the month. As of yet we have not caught many Thrushes or Lesser Redpoll so hopefully November will turn up trumps. For a full account of our ringing totals for the month and more please go to our Web Page and enjoy. Mick