1/12/16 My first solo ringing session!

It was crispy cold and dark when I turned up at the Butterfly Reserve. I got there so early because I wanted to make the most of the time I had (I needed to be out by 10am because BBOWT run school trips here). Setting up nets started off quite slowly - it was so dark I couldn't really see where I was putting my guy ropes but it soon lightened up so I thought it would get easier.

Wrong...

Schoolboy error no. 1: I cut my guy ropes last night in preparation for this morning and I found they were too short... thankfully I managed to shuffle around and find trees that were close enough together to reach the poles. (Jan later reminded me that I had tent pegs in my car so I should have used them... d'oh).

This was closely followed by schoolboy error no. 2!: I overestimated how long (or should I say short) a 6 metre net would actually be.. One guy would just about reach and I tied it onto the pole, balanced it at a slant and prayed it wouldn't just fall over while I moved the second guy.. (it didn't, yay!)

The second net I put up was 9 metres long and I had the same issue with the guys but I judged the length of the net just right (good job as well because there was a fallen tree just behind where I judged the net would go to)... All in all it took me 35 minutes to get two nets up... shameful!! Haha.

The first time I checked my nets I'd not caught anything. I watched some birds on the lake while I waited to check the nets again. There were Tufted Ducks, Coots, a Great Crested Grebe, a pair of Muscovy Ducks (I think - the red faced ones), Black Headed Gulls, Herring Gulls, 1 Lesser Blackbacked Gull, Cormorants. Note to self: download an app to submit my sightings.

I predicted last night that the first bird I catch while ringing solo would be a Robin... and it was! It was in the bottom shelf of my 9 metre net and, as I had predicted I would on my first session, I worried that I would do something wrong.. I inevitably panicked about the age of this bird for the rest of the morning. So here's my thought process at the time:

The inside of it's beak was grey, suggesting adult. I've taken a photo of the wing to show the greater coverts. The "blobs" of ginger aren't the typical rose-thorn shape of a juvenile but some of the greater coverts have blobs and some don't. This made me think that the ones with blobs might have been retained (old), which would make it a juvenile, but given that the inside of the beak was dark and the blobs were relatively small, I aged it as a "4" (born last year or earlier). Please do comment if you think I'm wrong! :-)

This was the only bird I caught all morning and Jan came over for half an hour or so to see how I was getting on and to talk a bit about setting up IPMR (the database in which ringing data is submitted), how I could have set my guys a bit better and places where I could have put my nets that might have caught more birds.

I'm thinking of going out and ringing again on Saturday. I'll try putting my nets up in different areas of the Butterfly Reserve, use the tent pegs for my guy ropes (and maybe cut some longer ones..!) and maybe set 3 nets rather than 2. Simon will be coming with me on Saturday (if I can drag him out of bed hehe) so if I get a bigger catch then at least I'll have a bit of help all morning :-)