Sunday, June 27, 2004

Ringing

Pics from this morning's CES ringing session at Ferry Meadows.


Juvenile Great Spotted Woodpecker




Juvenile Kingfisher


Female Reed Bunting 'control' - originally ringed by someone else at another site - click here for details.

Somewhere around 120 birds were trapped this morning - Chris's 100th CES visit to FM - from about 4am to 12.30pm when we packed up. We had the first juvenile Reed, Sedge and Garden Warblers of the year, plus what seemed like the entire juv Great Tit population of Cambridgeshire.

The weather conditions were good to start with, since it was overcast and not too breezy. Unfortunately, the vegetation was dripping with rain from the previous day, and it got hotter and more windy as the morning went on. There was a lot of deep, squelchy mud underfoot - as usual - and the mosquitoes took a toll on us - as usual. No amount of insect repellent seems to make a difference.

I felt like I made huge progress today. Extracting birds from nets is really tricky and it requires patience, a bit of problem solving, dexterity and a cool head! Today I finally felt like I was getting there. I'm still very slow (Chris can do about ten birds in the time it takes me to do one), but now I feel like I've got the basic hang of it and from now on I'll be able to get faster. Something clicked today. Hurrah!

What's on my iTunes: Gold - Ryan Adams

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