A Successful Day

Picture 1 - Blue Tit (Blåmejse)

We woke up to another stormy day with the wind rattling through the widows. It was rather dramatic as always, and chilly.

After some breakfast we planned the day, with the plan to do some ringing using one of the repaired nets. We put lots of layers on and snow suits to head out into the cold. Yesterday on our walk to feed the Snow Buntings (Snespurv) we came across a surprisingly sheltered spot with a steady number of birds. We grabbed the ringing kit we packed into a bag yesterday for the coming days and headed out with a plan to stay for a few hours weather depending. Once reaching the site, we spend time figuring the best position for the net. We accessed the issues around foliage and wind direction but after some time we successfully got it into place. This took a while with slight gusts from time to time so not the ideal, but we persevered. After about an hour or so we got a big surprise when we caught two birds, these ended up being a Great Tit (Musvit) and a Blue Tit (Blåmejse) so a big success all round.

These are some of the first birds ringed this year which is super cool and hopefully a good sign for the spring season ahead. We both went into ringing this new area with some scepticism if anything would come as walking from the lighthouse it was rather quiet as it has been over the last few days with these strong winds but overall, it was a very successful end to the morning. Whilst ringing we also heard two Water Rails (Vandriske) and saw a Dunnock (Jernspurv) which was very lovely.

Picture 2: Net Sewing

We both were getting a little cold so decided to pack away and head back. After some nice lunch and some quiet time, we decided to tick another task of the list. We had already completed seven nets out of eleven so thought it would be a good idea to complete this whilst the storm continued. It took a while, but we set ourselves a manageable target and completed it before a very quick and easy dinner of leftovers.

Ringing Grenen

Great Tit/Musvit 1
Blue tit/ Blåmejse 1      

Highlights:

• Net sewing complete!

Link to Dofbasen here.

Observers: Eleanor Harris, Thomas Weston