Finally we’ve had some seasonal weather mid-month, albeit for just two or three days! This encouraged some more unusual species of birds to the Ponds including a male Shoveler with the Mallard flock on 20th, and a single Siberian Chiffchaff (a much greyer version of our yellow-green Common Chiffchaff) briefly on 17th.
As well as these visitors, the regular wintering birds were still present with the Siskin, Lesser Redpoll (pictured right) and Goldfinch flock feeding in the alders, and the male Stonechat which is most often found along the northern boundary hedge. In fact during the first bird ringing session of the year, on 20th, this bird was trapped and ringed (pictured below).
The Stonechat was one of the nine birds caught on the 20th, and this total included four Goldcrests. Interestingly two of the Goldcrests were already ringed, one of which had been ringed by me at the Ponds back on 1st Nov 2015, which shows it is actually over-wintering at the Ponds. The other was wearing a ring that wasn’t fitted by me, so as soon as I get the data back on where this bird was ringed I will post it here.
The highlight though of this excellent session was a real surprise,as they are now a fairly scarce bird around these parts. A stunning adult female Green Woodpecker (pictured below).
