CES plus

Saturday dawned calm and bright; it stayed that way, too. We had managed to get the nets up the night before - even though we were interupted by a violent thunderstorm which passed directly overhead.

The Wildlife Trust were having an Eco-day in the park, so we opened up and invited visitors to come and see us ringing. With it being holiday time, it was not surprising that the park was exceptionally quiet until we were half way through our allotted time slot.

At first it was a few birders as they finished their 'walk round' and towards the end other interested members of the public, including one recently retired teacher looking for a new hobby.

43 birds was a good tally for the day (2 to be excluded from the CES) with just 6 adults, 3 of them new. Two thirds of the juveniles were now under-going PJ (post-juvenile) moult or had finished, the rest were still very much "babies".



Above: Errol & Sabrina chatting with visitors about ringing.



Above: Errol showing a visitor a juvenile wren (one of 7 caught).



Above: Although not demonstrated here, it was fascinating to see a german ringer (Sabrina), who had joined us, handling the birds 'upside-down' (in the reverse grip). Sabrina has a juvenile male blackcap (undergoing its post juvenile moult with a part brown & black head) in the British standard ringing grip. This is just one of several differences between British and foreign ringing schemes.

Summary for the day (ad/juv/r-t): Wren 0/7/0, Dunno 0/4/0, Robin 0/3/0, Blabi 0/4/0, Sonth 0/1/0, Reewa 0/3/1, White 1/2/0, Blaca 2/4/2, Chiff 0/2/1, Bluti 0/1/0, Greti 0/1/1, Goldf 0/3/0.