Singles of redwing and fieldfare appeared in the trees bordering our garden, just after we had finished recording an overnight moth-catch for the Garden Moth Scheme. The latter was the first one we had seen here this autumn.
Later on, we had to make a visit to Pembroke so had a look
around the millpond where it was nice to see two ringed Black-headed Gulls. One
was a 1CY Blue TJJ7 from Poland (Polish birds appear almost
annually at the Millpond) and an adult with a Helsinki Museum metal ring. We think that we have managed to read all of the digits, but this one will need to be
confirmed. We cannot recall previously seeing a BHG from Finland at the Millpond.
 |
| From various angles, we think we manged to read all the digits on this very obliging bird with a Finnish-ring |
Numbers of waterfowl were fairly modest, but included at
least 29 little grebes, 38 mute swans, 92 mallards, a minimum of 3 water rails calling on the perimeter of the middle pond, 21 moorhens, 8 coot, and c.100 BHGs and 28 herring gulls.
The Castle Pond might be being drained, so perhaps an interesting wader or two might turn up there in the next week or so if the mud does get exposed for a while.