A very busy week with a combination of some netting and nesting.
Wes started with a session at the Capel reserve on Saturday 5th, briefly joined by me, catching 20 new birds of ten species with highlights being four 
Whitethroat, a 
Reed Bunting and four new breeding 
Blackbird.

Wednesday 9th was a windy day but the potter traps in my garden produced three juvenile 
Chaffinch (above) and a juvenile and adult 
Greenfinch.

On Thursday 10th Jake and myself netted the reedbed at Warnham LNR catching 77 birds of twelve species including 43 new birds with highlights being a 
Reed Bunting, a newly fledged juvenile 
Garden Warbler (above), five 
Blackcap and seven 
Chiffchaff. But the best catch was a female 
Willow Warbler with a brood patch and a male singing nearby which is the first confirmed breeding of this species at this site. There was also an interestingly plumaged juvenle Great Tit which was very dark and lacking any yellow (below). Also on this day, Wes managed to ring a nest of six 
Willow Warbler and a nest of five 
Garden Warbler at the Capel reserve and I ringed the second to last nest box at Warnham LNR of 
Blue Tits.

On Friday 11th, Wes checked two 
Barn Owl boxes in a farm building near Capel and found an unringed male in one and an unringed female in the other with young chicks.

Finally, today I ringed at home in the morning and late afternoon catching 13 new birds highlighting in a juvenile and adult female 
Linnet (never caught here before - above), a juvenile 
Nuthatch (below) and another adult 
Jackdaw. In the field behind the house I also managed to find a nest of five 
Pied Wagtail in a log pile on a trailer which I ringed and a 
Linnet nest with one egg.

In a brief trip out at lunch today, 13th, to Horsham Park I managed to catch a 
Coot (below) in true Kane Brides fashion. Then a detour home via the 
Swallow nests that were at egg stage last week to find the nest with three eggs had three ringable chicks and the nest of five eggs with only day old chicks.

Birds ringed: (Retraps in brackets)
Blackbird - 5 (2)
Whitethroat - 4
Chiffchaff - 10 (3)
Great Tit - 8
Robin - 7 (1)
Greenfinch - 4
House Sparrow - 1
Willow Warbler - 2 + 6 nestlings
Reed Bunting - 2 (1)
Bullfinch - 1
Garden Warbler - 1 + 5 nestlings (1)
Reed Warbler - (1)
Blue Tit - 20 + 6 nestlings (20)
Chaffinch - 3
Dunnock - 2
Linnet - 2
Goldfinch - 6 (1)
Pied Wagtail - 5 nestlings
Swallow - 3 nestlings
Barn Owl - 2
Jackdaw - 1
Coot - 1
Nuthatch - 1
Good good good! Catching one in June is really good :-)
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