This is a post by Jonny Cooper:
With the forecast suggesting that the weather is going to take a turn for the worse until the weekend I decided to take the opportunity to put in a session at Meadow Farm. I was greeted by the first frost of the winter when I left the house and the car told me it was a balmy -2oC; and setting up the nets it certainly felt it.
I put on the Latvian love song and it dutifully produced 8 Redwing in the first round: it is certainly the most reliable lure we use. The morning carried on at a steady pace, somewhat slower than some of my sessions of late, but with it being so cold it was good to not have large numbers of birds sat in bags.
The catch for the day was as follows: Kingfisher (1), Blue Tit 5(18), Great Tit 3(3), Dunnock (2), Redwing 11, Blackbird 1, Chaffinch 2, Greenfinch 5, Goldfinch 8 and Reed Bunting 1. Giving 36 new birds from 8 species and 24 re-traps from, 5 species. A total of 60 birds from 10 species.
A pretty standard session for the site. Catching a Kingfisher is always a highlight, this site is very reliable for them. The Reed Bunting was only the third ever for the site which is odd as the site contains lots of suitable breeding habitat and is adjacent to arable fields where they flock during the winter.
Overall a good session, I was packed up and off site by 12:30 ready to warm up.
Ringing In The Braydon Forest & Beyond 