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| Snowdrops in the Butterfly Reserve |
It's been so long since we've been ringing that, when we left Tilehurst at our usual-ish time, it was already getting light..! At least we could see what we were doing when we put our nets up, though. We put the three nets up. The Gundry and Ecotone nets in the same place and the 6 meter NR net in the wet bit in the far corner - only because it would be easy to push the net poles into the ground hehe. The last time I came to the Butterfly Reserve on my own the ground was too frozen to push the poles in, and this time the lock was frozen shut so we had to climb over the gate until it got warmer later on, so better to take the easy option than push really hard and snap some poles..!
The Goldcrest in the list of totals had been caught during both January sessions as well. Each of these sessions he had been lured to the net by a tape playing calls. The time I came ringing on my own he went into the net 3 times so I had to change the species playing on the tape!
When we were packing up we caught a Bullfinch that sadly I couldn't ring because it had diseased legs. While I was looking at it's legs I noticed that it had a CP (cloacal protrusion), suggesting that it's breeding! I thought it was a bit early so I texted the photo to Jan and he confirmed that it was odd, especially since Bullfinches are usually late breeders!
I'll be going ringing at the Butterfly Reserve again on Thursday 9th but on my own this time, to carry on building confidence. Since it's a bit soon after this ringing session I'll be experimenting and putting the nets in all different places 😀 I will have to get my art head on and draw a map of the Butterfly Reserve to show exactly where I put my nets!
Below are some photos of the session 😊
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| Crusty unringable foot - possibly caused by mites |
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| Male Bullfinch |
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| A cloacal protrusion suggests this male is breeding |
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| Song Thrush |
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| Me ringing the Song Thrush |
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| A very well behaved Blackbird |
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