Mick sums up Saturday mornings ringing session:
With indifferent weather and not a lot of birds about and despite having a
feeding station we have persevered all month with not great numbers per
session but we continue in the hope of having a decent catch during the
month. So with a bit of calmish weather forecast for Saturday morning
we assembled to take advantage of it. The team arrived at 6:00. Dave,
Dawn and Matt were in one team to erect nets down one side of the bay
while Mel and myself dealt with the other. Nets up and a combination
of our new Latvian Redwing love song together with our old winter
thrush sounds echoing out pre dawn (time of day not our trainee) we
all sat down drinking coffee hoping for the best. It has to be said at
this time of year if we don't have a good thrush catch we tend not to
have a very good catch at all. Anyway, as we sat their in the gloom we
could here the odd Redwing coming out of roost so my expectations were
high but they always are, eventually it was time for the net round so
we split into our respective teams and headed off with thrushes moving
about everywhere. As Mel and I approached the first pair of nets
several thrushes could be seen, these were quickly extracted so we could
carry on to the rest. We were not disappointed as the other nets
caught in a similar fashion. So with the first round complete we managed to
catch 58 new birds together with a handful of retraps, a great result !!!
The rest of the morning continued with more thrushes being caught
but unfortunately the wind increased to the point where the nets
wouldn't be out of place being used as sails on a Galleon. At the end
of play we ended up with 77 new birds of which 62 were Redwing (our
second best catch ever), 8 Blackbird, 2 Song Thrush and a single
Fieldfare. Not a bad thrush morning and as an added bonus we also caught
a Chiffchaff. With the kit packed up it was off to our headquarters at The White
Horse in South Kilworth for a well earned pint of Real Ale!!!!!
Mick.
