Wood pigeon saves the day...

The amount of birds where impressive today. not the amount that got in the nets or during observations, but the numbers that where able to avoid the nets. With 9 ringed birds and 1 control in both gardens, this wasn't the best day of the week, although, 2 mentionable birds where caught, another hawfinch and a wood pigeon.

I also wanted to mention a little flashback to yesterday evening, I tried catching a pair of red-backed shrikes again. I setup the nets and waited for a very long time. After 2,5 hours of nothing in the nets, I decided to replace one, just to see if it was a good spot to try this morning, because I'd given up my hopes for the night with 1 hour of light left. After I set it up, I walked around to see if I could find the shrikes, nowhere... But when I was standing on one of the high dunes, I suddenly saw... A bird in the net! It appeared to be 2 and it was the pair I was after, so still a little bit of luck!

It was a pretty weird day for me, because after the succes of yesterday, I was out for more. The first time in 3 weeks that I didn't participate in the ringing (wich appeared to be a good timing considering the amount of birds). Unfortunately, 3 hours of roaming around with 4 poles and some nets, a hammer and ringing equipment didn't pay off. A moment I went to the beach and counted the breeding pairs of the little terns, there are at least 21 breeding now, almost the same amount as was found last breeding season (23 pairs).