'' I walked behind with me old cock Linnet''-----

---so goes the old Cockney song from back in the day when Linnets and other common finch species were regularly kept as caged birds by lots of people. Here's a close up of the head and breast of a cock Linnet in breeding plumage in case you have never seen one...

You can clearly see the two key features of a pink breast patch and plain grey cheeks. The area of the forehead just above the beak also has some patches of pink but they are often difficult to see as in this bird.

But why post material about Linnets? Well, we really are in the last throes of the winter feeding stations as birds gradually disperse and concentrate on breeding. But for some reason however, one of our farms is still attracting good numbers of Linnets which don't seem ready to breed. We only managed 3 short sessions this week because of unfavourable weather conditions but we still managed to ring 58 new Linnets along with 4 more Yellowhammers ( bringing this winters total of Yellowhammers to almost 100), 3 Great tits plus one each of Goldfinch, Reed Bunting, Chiffchaff, Robin and House Sparrow.

The total of Linnets ringed at this one site over recent weeks is now an incredible 137 and the lack of retrapped birds suggests that there is a constant flow of birds through the site. We just hope we can get some recoveries of our birds to give us some idea as to where they are travelling to in order to breed.

I mentioned we caught another 4 Yellowhammers and just had to show this picture of an adult male caught this week:-

There are two reasons for showing this picture. First they are gorgeous looking birds so why not show it!? But second, regular readers will have read me banging on about adult finches and buntings having muted colours on the outer edges of their feathers during winter in order to reduce aggression between males especially. These outer edges wear off as we move into spring revealing the bright breeding colours lower down the feathers--and that's beautifully illustrated by this bird. You can still see some dull feather edges round the head, but most have worn off showing this stunning yellow head to warn off other males and attract females--brilliant!!