Catching a Fieldfare

The winter thrush luck is well and truly in at the moment!

After a nice haul of around 6 Redwing's (probably the most we've ever caught in a year) it was now the turn of only the 4th ever Fieldfare caught on the site to turn up in the net. As mentioned previously, catching the winter thrushes is a difficult task with Fieldfare being the most difficult of the lot. 

We had been tipped off by a fellow ringer on a technique that he had used with great success to catch Fieldfare with on his site. It's pretty simple - just increase the height of the poles you stick your mist nets on. This means that when you put a tape underneath, the Fieldfare are still caught despite being a much warier bird that most often stays high over the tape. You always have to set up in the dark to catch the winter thrushes, to get them as they emerge from their roosts. So there we were, in the dark, frozen fields getting ripped apart by hawthorn in order to get ourselves a Fieldfare.

We then went about setting up the other normal nets and the morning's ringing began. We were catching fairly well (adding 2 Redwing to the year total) and I took time out to nip back home to grab a drink to help me deal with this annoying cough I had developed. When I returned it was getting well into mid morning. Certainly past the time we should be catching Fieldfare. Most definitely. 100%. No chance. Nil. Nada.

Birds don't play by the rules.

Not only had it been caught fairly late in the morning, it had also been caught in one of our normal nets and not the one we had got up in the dark to put up. Birds eh?

Luckily it could be forgiven because, not only is it a ringing tick for me, but it is absolutely beautiful. 

The morning was rounded off by one final birdy bonus in the form of a stunning first year male Sparrowhawk. Two Sparrowhawks in the space of 3 weeks, as well as a plethora of other birds, and it certainly feels like Christmas is coming early for me!