10th April

John and I got to the coastal park before light and set several nets around the Whitburn Point Nature Reserve. The hope was to trap and ring some of the local breeding linnets. The morning went well with a total of 15 birds trapped and ringed, which for Souter is not bad. Unfortunately we can not compete with the likes of Spurn and Portland Bird Observatory for numbers of birds trapped. Two grey partridge were accidently flushed from nearby grassland and the first bird just skimmed over the top shelf of the net but the second bird went into the top shelf. This was a new species for me and one that I had not handled before. I had to check the ringers manual to check it could be ringed and sure enough there are no restrictions on them so it was ringed and released. John also got a few new species which included linnet and yellowhammer, so a good day all round.

Species and numbers ringed; grey partridge 1, dunnock 2, greenfinch 1, reed bunting 4, linnet 1 and a pair of blackbird, goldfinch and yellowhammer.

Grey Partridge (c) John Brown Yellowhammer (c) John Brown