Brackenhurst Ringing Demonstration, Wednesday 8 March

Jim, Kev, Esther, Erin and myself set out on a relatively mild morning, later accompanied by Lorna and Simon. Again, the feeders had been completely emptied by squirrels a couple of days earlier but had been topped up prior to the ringing demo. As usual, we set up nets at both the ringing site and Orwin’s field. The morning started off at a fairly leisurely pace but we were kept busy all morning with a constant supply of birds and interested students.

We caught 61 birds of 9 species, as follows (new/retrap): Dunnock 2/0, Robin 0/1, Goldcrest 1/1, Blue Tit 1/3, Great Tit 2/2, House Sparrow 2/0, Chaffinch 2/0, Yellowhammer 29/13, Reed Bunting 2/0.

It was a decent catch of Yellowhammers and of note were a couple of that were 6 years old, one of which was first ringed in 2011 as an adult. The two Goldcrests were a male and female together (presumably a pair).

Finally, we were treated to Simon’s award-winning lemon and lime drizzle cake – delicious!

Louise

 (all photos by L. Griffiths)