Moving North
Ringing days have been few and far between this year due to the weather. Today the forecast was perfect, although we were a little concerned about the drizzle first thing, but this soon moved away. It very quickly became apparent that it was going to be an interesting day as an early net round returned three Brambling and one Chiffchaff from the same net.
The Bramblings are moving north to return to Scandinavia. It was suggested that some of these birds may meet up with the ringing team when they head to Dividalen in August! That would be magic, but highly unlikely!
Chiffchaffs have been heard on the reserve and several of these tiny birds were newly ringed, having flown thousands of miles from their wintering grounds around the Mediterranean.
Whilst having a cup of tea, identifying the moths, washing up or checking some species, the Sparrowhawk can be seen flying through and around the back garden. He flew into the net today! He was born in 2017 and is now in his third year. How many small birds has he eaten in that time!!
The ringing team are supportive of each other and help each other when there is a query about a bird. It is also important that interesting details about a species are shown to everyone.
The bird ringers were kept busy.
Ringing is not about numbers but it is interesting to record that we ringed eight new Chiffchaffs today. We still await the return of those ringed in previous years. Thirty two Bramblings were ringed. Bullfinch numbers have not been high over recent months but there have been more sightings of them in the back garden, especially around the seed hoppers, during March. This was refelcted in 17 being ringed.
As has been said before bird ringing is a team effort and includes not only the bird ringers themselves but those who help during the day carrying out a variety of additional tasks. Volunteers have worked in the net rides over the winter and in the coming months volunteers will support the ringers keeping the net rides in pristine condition A hugh thank you to all involved.