House Martins

On Thursday night we had a trip to Horning Hall, mainly to catch House Martins.When we arrived we were greeted by the magnificent sight of at least 50 birds flying around the house. Four nets were used with Gary's super efficient net coming out of top catching 13 birds !

The 'special one' 

Tony and the old style net

25 birds were caught in total, all adults bar one juvenile.  20 were new and 5 retraps. Four of the retraps were initially ringed on 13/07/2009 with 3 being adults and one juvenile. The other retrap was first ringed as an adult on 12/07/2007 and again retrapped on 21/07/09 !

One of the adults.

'Hairy legs'

The Barn Owl that had 4 eggs 3 weeks ago was checked again and has 3 chicks now. Unfortunately the Swallow nests have all been predated at chick stage with the Owl being the main suspect.