Ringing at Hannington 6th December 2014

Hi, it was very cold morning, with frost left on Matt's car and ice covering over the puddles. A few Tawny Owls were calling around the clusters of trees. We also saw a couple of Woodcock finding their little hiding spot for the day.

Our ringing team was Anna, Matt and I with Matt's wife helping us out by recording, great work! There were a lot Finch flocks around this resulted in a nice balanced catch of Tits and finches. There was only one slight problem, I didn't bring my SD card... Thankfully Matt had his phone on him so was able to take photos of the best birds. Due to the Tawny Owls calling Matt attempted to catch one/ it by tape luring. This method had been really unlucky for us with them not even replying or dodging the net. He sent me back after 10 minutes or so and there it was in the 2nd to top shelf! I tried to keep it in but it flew out again then thankfully it went in again. I was relieved to say the least!

As you can tell it really did want a sleep! One star attraction though was the number of Redwings that made their way into our nets.58 in total thanks to the famous Latvian lure. 

One thing that has proven to cause me great trouble is the cold, my fingers can barely move! To counteract this from happening Matt brought a long an electrical heater, it sure did work!

Here is the full list that we ringed, thanks to http://www.wiltshirebirds.co.uk/ringing/north-wilts-group.html: Tawny Owl 1, Redwing 58, Song Thrush 2, Blackbird 2, Tree Sparrow 11 (1), House Sparrow 14 (1), Chaffinch 18, Bullfinch 0 (3), Goldfinch 2, Reed Bunting 1, Yellowhammer 4 (1), Robin 8 (2), Dunnock 7, Blue Tit 17 (10), Great Tit 5 (6 ), Woodpigeon 1

Sorry for the late post, I've had a lot of school work recently so haven't got round to posting!