It's ages since we met up with M&M for ringing and we were all hoping that bird numbers on site will be building by now. We met at 6:30am and set six nets. There is a great deal of concrete all over the site, mostly moss covered, but as well as making pegging in impossible it also means that temperatures close to the ground in hot weather can be higher than usual.We intended to be packed up for 11am.
Mindful of the rising temperature, we set high and increased frequency of rounds. The first round gave 8 Blackcaps out of a single net with a smattering of birds across the other nets. The subsequent rounds yielded a few birds each time, until 9:20am when a large flock had traversed the main track and the majority were caught in two nets. This has happened on a few ocassions, at this site, now. It's something we know to expect from time to time.With 3 A-ringers present and a dedicated scribe, we handled this with no problem. With the last few to extract, I went with Margaret and started to process. CL & MRB finished extracting then joined us and when the last 15 or so birds were left, CL then went and cleared the ten or so newly captured birds. So this was exactly the situation that trainees need to be aware of, where just one or two nets can yield quite a lot of work. Especially when extracting tits and we had more than 30 of these alone.
The last five birds, extracted during taking down, were ringed at 11:45am, by which time the temperature was beginning to starting to push upwards. We overran a bit, but that was mostly due to a cake break for Chris' birthday (directly after the final net check) before going back to take the nets down.
Total: 110 (6)
Great Spotted Woodpecker - 1
Robin - 3 (1)
Dunnock - 2
Reed Warbler - 2
Lesser Whitethroat - 1
Whitethroat - 1
Blackcap - 39 (2)
Garden Warbler - 7
Chiffchaff - 15 (2)
Willow Warbler- 2
Long-tailed Tit - 2
Blue Tit - 23
Great Tit - 10
Treecreeper - 1 (1)
Mindful of the rising temperature, we set high and increased frequency of rounds. The first round gave 8 Blackcaps out of a single net with a smattering of birds across the other nets. The subsequent rounds yielded a few birds each time, until 9:20am when a large flock had traversed the main track and the majority were caught in two nets. This has happened on a few ocassions, at this site, now. It's something we know to expect from time to time.With 3 A-ringers present and a dedicated scribe, we handled this with no problem. With the last few to extract, I went with Margaret and started to process. CL & MRB finished extracting then joined us and when the last 15 or so birds were left, CL then went and cleared the ten or so newly captured birds. So this was exactly the situation that trainees need to be aware of, where just one or two nets can yield quite a lot of work. Especially when extracting tits and we had more than 30 of these alone.
The last five birds, extracted during taking down, were ringed at 11:45am, by which time the temperature was beginning to starting to push upwards. We overran a bit, but that was mostly due to a cake break for Chris' birthday (directly after the final net check) before going back to take the nets down.
Total: 110 (6)
Great Spotted Woodpecker - 1
Robin - 3 (1)
Dunnock - 2
Reed Warbler - 2
Lesser Whitethroat - 1
Whitethroat - 1
Blackcap - 39 (2)
Garden Warbler - 7
Chiffchaff - 15 (2)
Willow Warbler- 2
Long-tailed Tit - 2
Blue Tit - 23
Great Tit - 10
Treecreeper - 1 (1)