Ringing at the Avenue - 16th October 2011

The weather was just right this morning, so I went out with the Sorby Breck Ringing Group to ring at the Derbyshire Wildlife Trust's Avenue Wetlands in Chesterfield. We opened up four nest and although the birds were quite slow at first, by the end of the session at 12pm, 34 birds had been caught and ringed.

New birds for me were Willow Tit (1), Goldcrest (4) and a beautiful female Yellowhammer. 

Goldcrest

The most exciting element of the morning's ringing however, was the fact that I was able to correctly age a Blue Tit for the first time and that I actually got the wing length on one of the retrapped birds correct as well. Practise makes perfect as they say!

In between net rounds we had plenty of time to listen out for the other birds on site and recorded 18 species including dozens of fly over Redwings, my first Fieldfares of the winter, a yaffling Green Woodpecker, 1 Kestrel, 1 Sparrowhawk, 2 Jays, 4 Skylarks and Pied Wagtail.