After my last, hugely disappointing, session at the Firs back on the 5th September, with its 10 ringed and three retrapped from just seven species, we revisited with some trepidation. I was joined for the session at 6:45 by David, Laura, Adam and Ellie, and we set the usual nets. The nets were open by 7:45 and we caught our first two birds just as we were finally opening them: one new and one retrapped Robins.
It was a bit of a frustrating session to start with: we would have a few birds and then a long gap before we caught any more. By 10:30 we had caught one less than the 14 we caught last time. All bar two of those were retraps, just so little to ring. We had a chat and decided that, if the next round was as bad as the previous two, we would give it up as a bad job, cut our losses, go home and get warm. Naturally, that meant that the crew came back with 14 birds to process. I say “the crew” because I spent most of the time at the ringing station leaving the others to do all of the work. In fact, they set all of the nets whilst I set up the ringing station and, at the end of the session, they did the taking down while I packed away the ringing station. They also did all of the net rounds and I only joined them for one. Resting my old legs!
The final round, when the crew shut the nets, did produce a final Goldcrest, which I processed. Most unusual for me to process a bird when the team are out. Anyway, the list for the session was: Treecreeper 1; Blue Tit 7; Great Tit 2(5); Coal Tit 1; Long-tailed Tit 2(3); Dunnock (1); Robin 1(3); Blackbird (1); Goldcrest 1(1). Totals: 15 birds ringed from 8 species and 14 birds retrapped from 6 species, making 29 birds processed from 9 species.
It is most unusual for us to have a catch of Blue Tits with none of them being retraps.
Occasionally one will find people complaining that ringing causes the birds stress, make your own minds up:
It was happy to lie there for several minutes before rolling over and flying away. Laura, having watched my old trainer, Ian Grier, relaxing birds in this manner, has developed the skill significantly, and had a Great Tit also deciding to have a little rest before flying off.
Anyway, thanks to everybody for more than pulling their weight this session. We were closed up and ready to go by midday after what turned out to be a reasonable session.