20200317 Too windy a day

Anthony, John, Celia and myself gathered at 08:30. It felt a bit late now that the light is pretty good at 06:30 but Anthony had three nets up on East already so we had a head start. Later we added three more but the last one we did not open. We had high hopes since it is a long time since we used East and they were a little vindicated when the catch from the second round included two chiffchaffs (with sound lures not used). However the southerly wind came up rapidly and by 10:30 was tangling the nets in the vegetation unpleasantly leaving us keen to start furling by 11:50. It was disappointing since this was the first and only suitable day for a long time and high winds are again forecast for next week with a small possible window tomorrow that I will exploit in our garden.

Fifteen birds in total, nine new, six retraps. The two chiffs and the two song thrushes were newcomers, as was an adult jay and one of the long-tailed tits. Otherwise blackbirds and blue tits.

The feeling on the BTO blog is that we should not continue with group sessions because of Coronavirus risks but so far there has been no official advice. I personally did not feel unsafe within a small group. I worry about the CES sessions and personally would be happy to do West on my own as I have done a couple of times before but East is much larger and from yesterday’s experience would not want to do that by myself. Two of us could do it alternating rounds and avoiding contact inside 2m. in the Hut.

There will be future contact and calls as appropriate.