Another excellent day ringing at Stanford Reservoir
Mick,
Peter N and I met on the rail track at 04:30. We put up the nets, added callers
and by the time daylight was approaching, it was clear that there were lots of
birds moving around. The first round was extremely fruitful and included a
beautiful adult Tawny Owl - the first adult I have seen in the hand. I had the
pleasure of ringing the bird and soon had some holes in my skin! This was the
second adult caught in a mist net this year, but it has been approximately a
decade since the last adult was caught in this manner.
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| Tawny Owl. Photo: Chris Hubbard |
On the way back to
the ringing station, we met local birder Chris Hubbard who took one look at our
bounty and immediately offered to scribe for us. This left Mick free to
continue extracting while Peter and I got on with ringing. The spread of
species was excellent and as if the Tawny wasn’t enough excitement, we had more
highlights to come. Numbers were fantastic: 134 Blackcap, 58 Sedge Warbler, 47
Reed Warbler, 35 Whitethroat, 32 Willow Warbler and 1 Grasshopper Warbler. The
day was peppered with Redstarts and we ringed 9 in total. The last round
yielded a Yellow Wagtail, which was a lovely way to end the day. The totals for
the day were 358 new birds and 14 retraps. With so many birds clearly moving
through, we are hoping for another good session on Saturday.
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| Redstart. Photo: Chris Hubbard |
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| Redstart. Photo: Chris Hubbard |
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Yellow Wagtail. Photo: Dawn Sheffield
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