Today, I spent the morning ringing down at Mickley at David Leat's Constent Effort Site, which is in a large area of hawthorn scrub. It's a canny little patch and we caught 40 birds, including 4 yellowhammers, which were a 'ringing tick' for me, they are really nice birds in the hand!
We also caught a couple of groppers, a great-spotted woodpecker, 2 bullfinches, whitethroats and lots of common breeders.
It started to rain as we were packing up and it never really let up, I called briefly at Druridge on my way home. It was pretty dismal, raining, cold and windy - like a February day - what a change from last Saturday!
The meadow pipit nest I've been watching, which had four eggs last Tuesday and should have been hatched by now was empty, it was in a open position, totally visible from a path, so it has probably been predated by something, a shame, but sometimes birds build nests in the stupidest places.
Two ringed plovers and another unidentified small wader were trying to settle on the Budge fields, but the lapwings wouldn't let them, as soon as any of them tried to land, the lapwings would dive on them and chase them off. Why do lapwings chase small waders like ringed plovers so vigorously?
The forecast for tomorrow looks shite!
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