Ringing at Bowdown this morning I put three nets up. Two on either side of the big Oak - they only caught 1 bird each. I suppose without the feeders being regularly topped up the birds haven't much need to go to the oak anymore. I had a walk around later on in the morning to look for new places to put nets up. Some potentially good places but I'm wary that the nets would be visible from the footpath. On the other hand, a bit of publicity wouldn't be a bad thing. I need to build confidence talking to passers by about what I'm doing and get myself known in the area, so that I can venture a bit further from my car (people stand and look at my car because I park it inside the reserve and I suppose they're just curious, but I can't help but be paranoid... my car and it's contents are the most valuable things I own..!). I put the third net up along the footpath within the gated enclosure, and this net caught 8 birds. I'm thinking I might put two nets in a row in that area next time, since it's been such a productive net so far. My only worry about that particular area is that because the ground is solid rock I can't get pegs into the ground, so need to work out positions for the nets that are within guy rope distance of trees..!
The Long Tailed Tit that I caught first off was a female with a brood patch so far developed that I'm sure she must be sitting on eggs (BP4). The same went for the Dunnock caught later on this morning - I'd caught this bird a week ago and she had a BP3, BP4 today. Both male and female Blackcap's incubate eggs and the male I caught this morning had lost a lot of his belly feathers in preparation. He was also my first Blackcap of the year :-). In fact, all of the birds I captured this morning had signs of breeding! Excited to ring some pulli and 3J's in the near future!
Totals for this morning:
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