Congratulations!

Sunday, September 1st 2019

The 28th year of CES has been completed today. Congratulations! A huge thank you to the Swaledale Ringing Group and all the volunteers who have supported them. Support includes providing tea, strimming net rides, making cakes, counting bags and entering the data.

Some sums 28 years x 12 days each year = 336 days. 336 days x 101/2 hours = 3528 hours. None of the sessions have been missed.

A definite autumnal feel to the day, but there were plenty of birds around, mainly juveniles. Those adults that did appear were in moult. Great Tits, Blue Tits, Robins and Siskins were included in the species list. Coal Tits are continuing to head back into the reserve and Redpoll made their appearance today. Goldcrests are tiny birds weighing around 5 g. This is a male as he has orange feathers in his crest.

A volery is the name given to a group of Long-tailed Tits. Those that were processed today were all ringed at the same time earlier this year.

Final numbers are not yet collated but part way through the day we had ringed over 450 Bullfinches this year, and more were ringed before the close of play. It is good to see that these beautiful birds are doing well.

All of the data is sent to the BTO (British Trust for Ornithology). There, with data from other CES sites information about the state of our bird populations can be gleaned, which enables various conservation organisations to manage habitats for the benefit of these birds. CES days mean rising before dawn to arrive at Foxglove for dawn, which during the height of summer is 4am, and often staying after the ten and a half hours to complete all the ringing. But everyday is valuable in adding to our knowledge of our local and migrant bird populations. Thank you again to everyone for all their support.

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