Had a great morning in September at Dove Holes Quarry colour ringing the Twite which breed there.  Twite are a small brown finch and their breeding range is very restricted in the UK. We met Jamie Dunning on site at 7:30 am, by the time he had already made the first catch in the whoosh-net, which was a mix of Twite, Linnet and Goldfinch. They were extracted and brought back to the ringing station to be processed after the whoosh-net was re-set ready for firing again. The Linnets and Goldfinches were just fitted with metal rings but we fitted the Twite with plastic colour rings and a metal ring: metal…

In July, I met up with Kevin Bower in the centre of Sheffield to ring some Sand Martin pulli!  They were in an artificial nesting bank on the edge of the River Don.  Apparently this is the first year the birds have used the bank, and previously Kevin had ringed 19 birds this year.  We ringed 9 that day, one brood of 5 and one of 4.  Really nice birds to see in the hand and a ringing tick for me.

Back in June, I spent an enjoyable morning with Chris Lilley, Ava Teasdale and Eleanor Wilkins checking large boxes in the Sheffield area. Overall, we ringed a total of 3 Little Owls, 5 Barn Owls (the runt of the brood was too small to ring) and 5 Kestrels.  Some amazing birds to see in the hand, and two ringing ticks for me (BO and LO).

It was nice to get back to Renishaw last Sunday with Geoff even though we didn’t get a huge amount of birds.  We got 4 nets up by 7:30 and soon began catching the first birds.  One of our warbler nets produced the first two, a pair of new Treecreepers who were nesting in a tree nearby.  Geoff’s tape lures proved effective and finished with a good total of 6 Blackcaps (1 retrap from last year) and 4 Chiffchaffs.  It was good practise for me as quite a few birds caught had a well developed brood patch. Despite these highlights, by far the best bird caught was a 4M Grey Wagtail…

This morning we were up early and out ringing at Norbriggs Flash in Staveley.  We got 3 nets up, one singular and two joined together.  These two nets were set at a dog leg and we could hear at least 2 male Grasshopper Warblers reeling nearby so we quickly put a tape on and after a few minutes one flew straight in!  I had the privilege to process the bird.  My first Grasshopper Warbler I’ve ever seen,  and in the hand as well!  Also my first ringing tick of 2019.  We only got a total of 7 other birds made up of 1 Whitethroat, and 1 Willow Warbler.

On Saturday, we went ringing at Renishaw with Geoff and some ringers he had met on the Isle of Wight Ringing Course. We put three nets up,  with a net by the feeders producing lots of tits and also some Nuthatches but the birds of the day were a pair of Kingfishers caught in a net specially to catch them.  There was one new bird which I ringed and a retrap.  It was a female due to having orange on the lower mandible and a first year due to having brown on its legs.  The other bird was an adult male. Kingfishers have a really weird habit of twisting their heads round! The…

Today we spent a freezing cold morning ringing at Ramsley Reservoir with Geoff.  By the end of the morning we had netted and ringed 83 birds consisting of Redwing, Long-tailed Tits, Blue Tits, Great Tits, Redpoll and Meadow Pipits. The Redwings were caught at the start of the morning, the first net round producing 1 bird, the second producing 5 and the third produced two.  They need a CC ring along with Song Thrushes and Dippers.  They were a mix of 3’s and 4’s, the adult birds lacking the white rim to the tertials.  None of the birds caught today were the Icelandic subspecies but if any had been they would…

This is the section of my blog where I will write about some of the bird ringing activities I regularly participate in. I have now been training for about 2 years with Geoff Mawson, who is secretary of Sorby Breck Ringing Group. Most of the ringing I do is using mist nets, which are typically made of polyester and are a safe and generally harmless way to catch birds for ringing purposes. I have also had the opportunity to ring birds in the nest and whoosh-netting Twite. The ultimate aim of ringing is to study birds on passage or to monitor populations, particularly in the breeding season. The metal rings…