A bright, clear, still day.  We put up a single net close to the feeders, as there remain few birds in the reed bed and ponies are currently grazing the open fields and have access to adjacent net rides.

The catch was relatively predictable, being dominated by finches with the odd locally resident tit and a dunnock thrown in.  Looking back at data for the last two years, we didn’t start capturing siskin until March in 2014 and April in 2015, so capturing 39 unique birds to date (including recaptures from previous years) is great.  It will be interesting to see if we have an earlier first brood this year.

Following packing up, Darren’s car refused to start, which was the eventful part of the day. An electrical wiring problem resulting in a lack of power to the battery was subsequently diagnosed and fixed by the AA four hours later (only three and a half hours later than they had promised to arrive). He spent the intervening period running between the gate to keep an eye out for the breakdown truck and his car, which the ponies had taken a liking to!

I will be delivering a talk, on behalf of Gower Ornithological Society on Ringing at Oxwich 2013-2015 at the Environment Centre, Pier St, Swansea on Friday 26 February at 19:00.  The cost is £1 on the door.  Everyone welcome.  

For more info about GOS events see: http://www.glamorganbirds.org.uk/gos-events.html