A ringing and a garden tick

A trip down to the reservoir these last couple of days hasn't produced a great deal of note apart from the continued disturbance by wildfowlers who are allegedly culling Canada Geese but targetting Mallard and anything else that flies near them. There was a steady stream of Meadow Pipits overhead along with six grey Wagtails in an hour.

A Nuthatch called from Cut Wood - the first I've ever heard there, so I'm fully expecting the area to be colonised more fully. It has been one of those strange enigmas - Rishton is surrounded by woods with Nuthatches but they've been virtually absent from the borough as long as I've lived here.

late on Sunday morning, I met up with Mark to do some more ringing and the first net round produced several Chiffchaffs, Goldcrests and this Whitethroat (a garden ringing tick for Mark).

Juvenile Whitethroat

Though the weather was almost perfect, it seemed as if the majority of birds had overflown in the morning when the area was covered with low cloud. However we did catch a few more Meadow Pipits later on.

Back home, Goldfinch numbers are increasing and so it will soon be time to have another ringing session there. the surprise of the day was a Wigeon flying along the canal - another new bird seen from my back garden!