Avenue Ringing - 2nd July 2016

Every two years there is a 24 hour wildlife event at the Derbyshire Wildlife Trust's Avenue Washlands reserve in Chesterfield. This morning I was down there from 5.15am with 5 other members of the Sorby Breck Ring Group to carry out a ring demo for the event. We ringed 44 birds of  14 species (Bullfinch, Chaffinch, Dunnock, Blackbird, Jay, Kingfisher, Robin, Chiffchaff, Willow Warbler, Blackcap, Blue, Great, Long-tailed and Willow Tit).

The highlight of the morning's ringing for me was the chance to ring a new species - Kingfisher. The bird, a juvenile female, was also the first opportunity that I've had to extract this species from a mist net. As you can imagine, I was very pleased to see this species on a net round, and even more pleased when I realised that I was the only member of today's team not to have ringed one before. Here's a couple of pictures.

Kingfisher