Our first control and the first Ladybird of the year

I had heard Redpolls around the garden yesterday and there had been good numbers of Chaffinches and Goldfinches so Mark came round for a morning's ringing session. Unfortunately, there was a steady easterly breeze making the nets billow out and appear obvious - and that was before the sun came out making things worse! Anyway, we managed to catch a few birds in the bottom nets including our first control for the site; this Greenfinch....

 Hope to have some information about where it's come from before not too long.

I had seen at least two more unringed Bullfinches recently so guess what we caught! That makes 19 in teh garden so far this winter. This one enjoyed the experience so much that it didn't want to go!

We took the nets down by 12 and I started some tidying up in the garden coming across this Ladybird and a Bumble Bee in the sunshine. Spring is very close!