Today at a private garden near Newtown I managed to catch 5 out of about 150 Bramblings present. I had hoped it would be more but the birds were feeding on natural food at numerous spots over a wide area. This year there is a very good Beech mast crop, something that spells good times for lots of our seed eating birds (this was evidenced by the hordes of Blue Tits and Coal Tits I also caught!). I've now started baiting a good netting site so hopefully the next trip will be slightly more successful in terms of the number of Bramblings ringed - I hope so, sunflower hearts aren't cheap!. Tomorrow morning I'm off to try and catch a few at a site further west were there is currently a flock of well over 1,200!!
It has been a good while since I managed to ring any number of these stunning finches but I've got a feeling this winter is going to be exceptional. Here is an adult male, note the lack of any contrast in the greater coverts, the black primary coverts and the rounded tail feathers.
Brilliant Tony. I started to see a few Brambling in Shetland just before I left - caught one in my garden just a few days before leaving. So, it's taken them a month to reach Mid Wales!
ReplyDeleteGet in there :)
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