The Mute Swans in this area of the broads have not been the subject of ringing attempts for a couple of years now due to the restrictions imposed during the pandemic and the usual routine for marking sessions becoming disrupted as a result.
The session required liaison with the broads authority and local parish council, and the site is also extremely busy with members of the public coming to feed the swans. Quite a bit of organisation was required to assemble a team and arrive at a suitable date and time. So, today was the day and we started at 8:30am before the Swans had had too much to eat and while general footfall around the catching areas was still minimal. We were very fortunate to have MR, the project coordinator, join us with MHE, JM, CL and DKL making up the team.
We tried three separate locations and finished just after 1pm having used up all our metal rings and darvics. It's fortunate that MR was on hand to issue more darvics (as we ran out) and an order for metal rings will soon be on its way to the BTO as the latest order of 50 rings were all used.
The session proved very successful, with 52 new birds marked, three previously ringed birds having darvics added and a further three birds recorded from darvics and in one case a metal ring.
Swan ringing can be expensive, taking the cost of the BTO metal rings and the darvics together we used up around £300 worth of rings this morning.
Total: 52 (3)
Mute Swan - 52 (3) & a further 3 birds identified in the field.