Roadside Ringing and more Fieldfares!

Next to a roadside isn't the first place you would think to put up some nets and do a spot of bird ringing but, earlier this week, I found myself in this exact position. Granted, it wasn't directly by the roadside - rather it was in an orchard separated from the road by a hedgerow. Even so it was still strange to have cars hurtling past at 50 miles an hour while you're extracting a Robin from a net.

I was out ringing with a fellow called Chris Lilley, a member of my ringing group who had kindly invited me out with him to a few sites I had never been too. The week before we had ringed over 20 Goldfinches in a garden of one of his family members which gave a perfect opportunity to compare and contrast many individuals of the same species. One thing I like about catching one species regularly is the chance you get to learn how to age or sex them. I had the chance earlier in the year to do the same with Yellowhammers, and it really gets ingrained in your brain how to process the bird when you deal with such a large number of them!

The orchard, which was in somebodies large garden, contained a number of feeders and brought in many different species. We saw lots of different birds, such as Yellowhammer, Fieldfare, Collard Dove, Redwing etc, but catch rates were slow throughout the day and we finished on a meagre total of about 15 birds for about 3 hours of ringing. It wasn't an unenjoyable morning by any means however as it was nice to see a new site, talk to Chris and get my hands on my first Tree Sparrows in what must be at least 2/3 years.

Nice to see these little guys in the hand again.

Fast forward the week to yesterday (Saturday), and I was back at the old stomping ground with the usual group trying our hand at catching the winter thrushes again. This time we were more successful than ever with an impressive haul of 3 Redwings and 3 Fieldfares on the first net round before I had to leave early for work. Well worth getting up in the dark and freezing your toes off for!

It'll take something special to beat this bit of winter ringing!