The Rub of the Green

Took my two daughters, Amy and Hannah, down to Glasbury last night to have one final go at netting the Sand Martin colony there. Most of the birds have now finished their breeding activity for 2011 but there were a few still around and we managed to catch 12 bringing the total to well over 300 (and one French control) in just 4 trips. There were also about a dozen Yellow Wagtails and 50 linnets on the shingle but although I did managed to catch a dozen Linnets the Yellow Wags were not having any of it. As dusk approached the calls of a Green Sandpiper brought visions of better things. I quickly set a 60ft North Ron Super Fine across the old ox-bow and went off in search of the sandpiper. A couple of minutes later we were slowly moving no less than 4 Green Sandpipers towards the net! Amazingly (as anyone who has ever tried to catch Green Sands before will know) two of them complied fully and headed straight for the bottom shelf hotly pursued by one very happy ringer. Dad, we didn't know you could run that fast!!

Not a single Green Sandpipers was caught in Wales during 2010!