Again today turned into another double effort day! George and Ross Ahmed were ringing over at the Observatory whilst Dave vincent and Mick Briggs were completing session number 10 of the C.E.S. at Aylmer Avenue. The days combined catch was 79 birds processed including 58 New birds and 21 Retraps.
The catch was made up thus (New/Retrap) - (3/0) Swallow, (5/1) Wren, (1/2) Dunnock, (3/0) Robin, (0/1) Blackbird, (1/0) Reed Warbler, (7/3) Lesser Whitethroat, (6/3) Whitethroat, (2/0) Blackcap, (9/0) Willow Warbler, (1/1) Long Tailed Tit, (2/6) Blue Tit, (1/1) Great Tit, (2/0) Magpie, (2/3) Chaffinch, (12/0) Greenfinch and (1/0) Goldfinch.
Another fairy good day with numbers of Warblers continuing to build up slowly although again conditions were not the best for a decent catch with bright sunshine and a stiff breeze.
Later in the afternoon with a bit of help from Lynda Briggs, Mick Briggs managed to get all of the brash from the front of Aylmer to a fire site and also managed to get the whole lot burnt although the last hour of the day was sspent in light to heavy at times rain waiting for the last pile on the fire to burn down to a safe level before leaving for the night at around 9pm!
Another very long day, having started at 5am, but at least all necessary clearing of rides of Wragwort by hand! and then brush cutting and then burning has been done in both of the large enclosures that ringing is carried out in at Aylmer Avenue. They now look cracking for the Autumn rush of migrants!