It has been a rather quiet long weekend at Whitburn. A high pressure system lingered over Whitburn and it meant that there was never going to be a fall of migrants. On Saturday approximately 50 birds were trapped and ringed and Sunday saw only 35 birds ringed. Today we trapped just over 40 birds. The majority of birds belonged to the tit family. We have now surpassed our previous record of coal tit (68 in 2008). Highlights were our 9th great spotted woodpecker of the autumn. It is highly likely that these are continental birds as they have been seen flying in off the sea at a number of locations. Considering that in 4 years of ringing we have only trapped 2 great spotted woodpecker, 9 this year is incredible.
We had a new ringing species for Whitburn today, no it wasn't as rare as our recent pallas's grasshopper warbler - it was a Kestrel!!! They regularly sit on the net poles but never end up in a net until today. Andy had the pleasure of extracting it and ringing it (a new species for him). On the same net round I had trapped our 10th sparrowhawk of the year (an immature male).
Overall a fairly good few days.
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