That's more like it !!

We decided to alter our strategy a bit this week because it looked quite windy on Wednesday while Tuesday and Thursday looked good for ringing. 

So --Wednesday's session at Belvide is postponed and will now take place on Thursday

The change of plan has so far proved entirely vindicated after we had a superb morning of ringing today. It was clear from the first visit to the nets that there had been some migration overnight--and the thick cloud cover which came in early morning had caused some birds to drop down to rest, feed and wait for better conditions.

We ended the morning having caught around 150 birds of which 126 were new birds. Not only that but 107 were migrant warblers. The spread of species was very encouraging. With 24 birds, Sedge Warblers continued being the most common migrant at Belvide--closely followed by Chiffchaff with 22 ringed. At 14 Blackcaps are increasing but we think there are many more to come. The most interesting species for us were Willow Warblers with 16 newly ringed, Common Whitethroat and Garden Warblers with 7 each, and Lesser Whitethroat with 5 ringed.

We are all looking forward to Thursday to see what the weather brings--more about that on Thursday