Woodcocks are leaving ? But finches continue !

Perhaps our final Woodcock session of the season last night, just 1 bird seen under a sky full of stars, and with a brightening moon rising earlier each night.

This was our route on Sunday 10th March at our Boncath site, where we retrapped one and saw another ten Woodcock. We did catch a Fieldfare and a Redwing on the higher slopes as a nice bonus.

This was a typical night, taking 2 hours to walk the 5.1km climbing 323m. GPS is used to track our route on each visit and plots each capture, both original ringing and retrapping, adding value to the ringing data.

Back to finches and details of our recent controls, both firsts of each species for the Group;-
Siskin Y543478 was ringed in Surrey as 2nd calendar year female on the on the 16th March 2012, and controlled in Boncath on 31st January 2013.

We have now ringed over 300 Siskins in 2013, and with a Belgian control already, it will be interesting what movements will hopefully follow.
Greenfinch TP09596 was ringed in Kent as a 1st year male on the 24th November 2011, and contolled in Llechryd on the 26th January 2013.
Will Bramblings provide our next recovery ?
.....Bramblings are still present in our two garden ringing sites above....with good numbers of Siskins and increasing numbers of other finches particularly Goldfinches.