Mist netting 18/11/2025

In order the beat the forecast rain, the group's most recent session was again organised around the shelter of the Discovery Hut. Five nets were set: two in the feeders area, two in the central reed bed and the fifth on the south side of the reeds. The morning was cold, there were few birds about and so our initial catches were low. We caught the first of our reed buntings and the first of the fourteen blue tits that were to be caught throughout the morning. We put up a sixth net in reeds behind the pond that it visible from the Discovery Hut. Our catches picked up from about 9am, presumably because birds were then foraging more widely with the increased temperature, and we had a good number of birds in short succession including five goldcrests and a song thrush - a species that we dont catch frequently at the wetlands.

Above: songthrush showing the rufous under-wing coverts, normally only visible in flight. Compare this with the very much brighter under wing of the Redwing (below) in which the red colouration extends down from the wing and into the flanks, making the red visible in the field.

After another quiet spell numbers again picked up from about 11am including a handful of reed buntings, several blue tits - both new birds and retraps - and a solitary goldfinch which was lured in to the nets with a goldfinch tape.

This is a male goldfinch. The red feathers on the head extend behind the eye. In females the red colouration does not go beyond the eye. The nasal bistles are black, which is a male feature. Females have brown bristles. Goldfinches, like most finches, have a thick bill that is adapted for breaking open seeds and cereals. They use their tongues to manipulate the seed in to position so that it can be cracked open and the kernels can be eaten. Finches will often monopolise bird seed feeders because they can feed on one seed after another, whereas less specialised species, such as tits, have to take each seed away and peck at it to open the shell.

Here is a bird with a very different bill. This is a wren and their bills are fine and pointed for winkling out insects and grubs from nooks and crannies. The wing of this individual shows it to be this year's bird: the rufous old greater coverts are juvenile feathers which have yet to be replaced by the greyer coverts of the adult plumage.

Here is another bird that was hatched this year, this time a blue tit. The greenish coloured primary coverts are those of a young bird and have yet to be replaced by the blue feathers of the adult plumage.

The session concluded with a min-flurry of blackbirds, one of which is having it's wing measurement taken in the photo above. Blackbirds are good to see because their numbers have been reduced as a result of the mosquito-borne Usutu virus which was first recorded in Britain in London in 2020 and which has subsequently spread across southern England. More information about the disease can be found here: www.bto.org/our-work/news/press/much-loved-songbird-threatened-mosquito-borne-virus. We began taking down the nets at about 1pm as the first of the day's showers arrived having caught 51 birds of 13 species.