Jonny once again stepped in to run my CES for me whilst I continue my recovery. Ellie joined him first thing, until she had to leave for work at 9:30, and I put in an appearance between 9:00 and 10:00, thanks to my lovely wife, Lilian, driving me to site.
It was nice to ring a few birds again, especially when one of them was my team’s first (of two) newly fledged Bullfinch for the year. Jonny beat us to it, with one on his Sutton Benger site 5 days ago, but it is always a good catch.
I love the way they look at you, so indignant.
This year’s catch was considerably better than the equivalent session last year (24 birds from 12 species) compared to this year’s 55 birds from 16 species. The list was: Treecreeper [2](1); Blue Tit 1[2](2); Long-tailed Tit [1](1); Wren [2]; Dunnock [1](1); Robin [1](2); Song Thrush 1[1]; Blackbird (2); Cetti’s Warbler (1); Blackcap 1[5](1); Garden Warbler [1]; Whitethroat [1]; Chiffchaff 1[16](2); Willow Warbler [2]; Chaffinch [1]; Bullfinch [2]. Totals: 4 adults ringed from 4 species, 38 juveniles ringed from 14 species and 13 birds retrapped from 9 species, making 55 birds processed from 16 species. Of the retrapped birds, 6 were juveniles from 4 species, so the total number of juveniles processed was 44.
We left Jonny to it and wandered over to the Dragonfly Cafe for coffee and cake – only the cakes hadn’t arrived yet! I had to settle for a toasted teacake, which was very nice. As we were getting ready to leave, the cakes arrived! I resisted!
Jonny carried on for the rest of the session and packed up by midday. Hopefully, I will be able to do the next few myself, as I plan to start ringing again on Saturday: which should mean I can start doing some proper blogs again, instead of waffling on!
Ringing In The Braydon Forest & Beyond 