More Willows

Nigel and I had a late afternoon session at our summer site yesterday, the conditions weren't the best - sunshine and breezy but all in all we didn't do too bad, with 28 new birds and 4 retraps. We first checked an owl box that we knew had 2 Stock Dove eggs in it at the last visit and found 2 ringable chicks. At the site there was still plenty of birds singing so we felt hopefull. Each net round contained Willow Warblers 15 in all, with 7 adults showing various stages of moult and 8 juveniles. At one stage I thought we were never going to get a juvenlie Garden Warbler but we had 3, and an adult female.
Over the 3 visits we've made to this area, so far we have ringed 30 Willow Warblers,our previous best for the whole area has been 7, with only 5 last year.

Stock Dove 2 pulli

Blue Tit 3
Willow Warbler 13 (2)
Great Tit 5 (2)from a brood of 7 pulli ringed 31/05/10
Garden Warbler 4
Wren 1
Blackcap 1
Treecreeper 1

More Owlers than Robert Green

Just thought I'd start a new game, the corniest World Cup word plays ever!
Last night, forfeiting the excitement of Italy v Paraguay, 6 'Owlers' set off in to the shire to ring Little Owls. Paul and Daz of 'Owls About That' blogspot fame have spent hours and hours finding and recording nest sites and what a good job they've done. In the space of a couple of hours we visited only 5 of them and ringed 16 birds, 1 adult and 15 chicks. Here's just one chick from a recently erected box site in south Leics.