Late autumn ringing at Veshtitsa, NW Bulgaria

 This autumn I finally decided to dedicate some time to ringing winter thrushes( or at least attempts to do so) because my ringing results regarding winter thrushes are pretty much pathetic. The main problem for me is that I live and work in Sofia, but my ringing place is near my home town - 200km away from the capital. Until now I was usually taking 1 week off at the beginning of September to be able to ring during the peak of migration. It's all good when I'm focusing on most migrating species, but obviously not even close to optimal for ringing Fieldfares and Redwings.

Until now I had ringed 3 Fieldfares at the place (and no Redwing) so I was not hoping for much. My main idea was to use five nets and start playing sound 2 hours before dawn. I also decided that when the sun comes out I will change the sound to my finch mix to try and catch some Bramblings(I'm really in love with them but until this year I've had only 2 of them ringed at my place). I was ringing mostly in the early mornings because on most days I had to be home for work at 09:30.

After six days of ringing, I managed to achieve results that surpassed my initial expectations:

Results from the thrush mix:

Redwing(Turdus iliacus): 10

*ringed for the first time at my ringing site

Fieldfare(Turdus pilaris): 4

Blackbird(Turdus merula): 12

Song thrush(Turdus philomelos): 7

Results from the finch mix:

Chaffinch(Fringilla coelebs): 17

Brambling(Fringilla montifringilla): 11

Greenfinch(Chloris chloris): 30

Siskin(Carduelis spinus): 1

*also ringed for the first time at my ringing site