A touch of quality!

This morning we had our third session in 6 days--so a big thanks to team members for their efforts! They were rewarded by another good catch--not quite as numerous as of late but exactly 100 new birds is pretty good by any standards.
This time we had a bigger range of species than recently with 16 species demonstrating how migration patterns change through the season.
Blackcap was still the most numerous with 39 ringed, but Sedge and Reed warblers were much fewer, with 10 and 2 respectively. We also had small numbers of Chiffchaff, Willow Warbler, Goldcrest, Whitethroat, Lesser Whitethroat and Garden Warbler.
However, we also had a juvenile female Redstart--always a class bird to catch in an area where they are not breeding:-

And rather more expected at this time of year, a Spotted Flycatcher

We get fewer than one Redstart per year, and between one and five Spotted Flycatcher--so we were very happy to have both species this morning.
The temperature dropped soon after sunrise and this made the flies drop nearer the water. There were lots of San and House Martins catching the flies and we managed to catch 6 Sand Martins--although they proved very difficult to catch with full sun on the nets.
Something a bit different cropped up on the path by one of the nets in the form of this Common Shrew which was so intent on chomping away at a beetle it actually allowed me to pick it up for a photo:-

Amazingly, two minutes after the shrew scurried off a wood mouse appeared on the track--just like London buses.......

 

We are hoping to have another session on Saturday, but it looks like it could be quite windy--watch this blog to see if the session has been changed--I will make a decision late tomorrow.