A farewell Fieldfare

3,084 birds later and the spring standardised ringing is officially over. It's been a good year for some species (Spotted Flycatcher, Linnet, Starling) and a not-so-good year for others. We finished the season 701 birds down on the 1980–2011 average — a big chunk of those missing birds are Willow Warblers, 535 below average this spring. 

Biggest surprise in the net this morning was this 2cy female Fieldfare. They breed in the village, so it's not totally unexpected, but we didn't count on finding one in the nets (a second unringed bird was also in the garden a bit later).

The bird has 5 retained juvenile greater coverts.

The bird can be sexed by e.g. the extremely narrow black central shaft streak to the crown feathers; the brownish-grey (rather than black on the males) tail; the dull brown mantle (lacking any chestnut or rufous tones as in the male) and the rather white (lacking extensive ochre colour, as often shown by the male) breast. It also showed a fully developed brood-patch.

The very final bird to be ringed during the standardised catch was this 3+cy female House Martin.:

There have been big numbers of Common Crossbills migrating south other the peninsula all day today. We tried catching some this morning but they weren't playing; I'll try again in the morning.

The rest of the day has been spend cleaning the station, followed by a (as always) super meal cooked by Karin in the evening.