New (ringing) species at Linacre

This morning was the first ringing session at Linacre since January (see here), when we were rained off after an hour, so we were very pleased to get on site and get a couple of nets up around the feeders. The morning started very well, when the first bird out of the nets was a species that we hadn't ringed at Linacre before - a Lesser Redpoll! Thanks David, for putting that recording on. This bird was a female, as was the second one, and then the third bird turned out to be a male- 3 Lesser Redpolls in one morning!!! Before these birds, I hadn't even recorded them on site this winter. Here's a few photos of 2 of this morning's birds:

Female bird

Male bird

The morning carried on well as the birds came "thick and fast", with 58 birds of 8 species ringed by the end of the morning's session (Blue, Great and Coal Tit, Blackbird, Robin, Lesser Redpoll, Wren and Dunnock).  My personal totals were (new/retrap):

Lesser Redpoll 1/0, Great Tit 2/2, Blue Tit 6/2, Robin 1/2, Dunnock 1/0.

In between net rounds we kept our eyes open and spotted a couple of Canada Geese flying over, drumming Great-spotted Woodpecker, a Sparrowhawk, 4 Mistle Thrushes and singing Blackbird, Song Thrush, Wren and Dunnock.

One final record from today was my first sighting of Coltsfoot for 2014.

Coltsfoot