Tuesday 23 June 2020

Back to the New Normal

The BTO recently sent round guidance for ringing, and so we have started again, in a modest fashion, whilst maintaining social distancing. It has been a very strange period, and we are delighted to get back out in the fresh air, and what is now the summer sunshine.
Our birds at the res seem to have managed very well without us, and we are now getting good numbers of juvenile Sylvia and Phylloscopus warblers, as well as the usual resident species.
Dave, Kate, Theo and I were out at the beginning of June, having a pleasant, but possibly unexciting session. We were amazed to find not one but two Swifts in our nets, one at Box 8, one at Safari.


Photos courtesy of Theo.
These are the first Swifts since 2001, and quite possibly the only ones caught in a static mist net at Stanford. Ringing ticks for Peter and Kate. Fantastic birds!