Dawn over the Scrapes

Dawn was breaking over the Scrapes as the bird ringers put up the nets for yet another weather-affected CES day.

As it was a “work  day” several people were unable to attend and so there were only a small number who could ring.  Thank you to everybody who contributed today, especially those people who were there for the 4am start, put in 4 hours in the ringing room, and then went off to do a day's work!  Also to those who gave up a few precious hours during the day. There were many juvenile birds caught including Robin, Greenfinch, Willow Warblers and Chaffinch.  Together they created the day's total of over 200 new and retrapped birds.  In the grand scheme of things it was the second best CES 4 with just 5 birds less than in 2002 which was the best year ever.  Sparrowhawk, Nuthatch, Goldcrest, Garden Warbler and Marsh Tit added to the final total.

The picture above, was taken by Andrew, and shows a recently visited Peregrine Falcon nest where, sadly, we feel the eggs have failed.  The female was still sitting when we arrived, but she has been there a very long time and the eggs should have hatched by now.  We will be checking again from a distance this weekend just to make certain.