Bleedin Bramblings.....

A jet lagged approach to the weekends birding saw me spending most of the time snoozing in the conservatory whilst keeping a close eye on proceedings at the feeders. We now have three Bramblings - two males and a female. How do I know this for sure? Cos one of the males is ringed with a BTO metal ring. Unfortunately I can only get the first letter and the last digit which narrows it down to 498 birds a according to the BTO's Mark Grantham thats the number of ringed male Brambling with that letter & digit combination.

The next step was to put a mist net up once the snow had eased off and try to catch it. As usual the Blue Tits flock to the net and whislt I'm busy extracting them the finches look on in bemusement from the top of the trees.

Three Blackcaps were also present - one male, one unringed female and a ringed female.

Although moost of the finches stayed well away from the mist net the Siskins proved to be more amenable with five being ringed. This year is the first time I've caught Siskins in the garden. Another ringing first for the garden was Song Thrush!

Meanwhile, despite the snow, Wood Pigeosn are buildign a nest in a bare birch tree and Great Tits are exploring the nest box below.