It's more ringing and Swallows I'm afraid because it's a case of 'making hay whilst the sun shines', and we need to take advantage of these calm conditions to get mist nets up.
Craig, Ian and I were at the Swallow roost again last night and we had more roosting, approximately 2,000 birds, but we ringed less. The main reason for this is that the birds are going in to roost further on from where our nets are set up. This is usually the case, but generally the MP3 player with Swallow song on calls them to where the nets are. I think with the increase in birds and all the excited calls prior to roost they are paying less attention to the MP3, or in fact might not be hearing it as well over the commotion of the birds, and are therefore not coming down to investigate the 'super singing' Swallow.
We ringed 39 birds as follows (recaptures in brackets):
Swallow - 31
Reed Warbler - 4
Sand Martin - 3
Sedge Warbler - 1 (2)
To try and ensure we ring more Swallows next time out we are going to extend the existing net ride towards where the birds are roosting and hopefully this should increase our catch. I'll keep you posted.
2 comments:
Keep up the good work mate :-)
I look forward to your breeding bird results.
The Whitethroat here appear to be having a second brood, the first time they have done so on my patch :-)
Thanks Warren. Interesting to hear about your Whitethroats as we thought the same for our Sedge Warblers.
Cheers,
Seumus
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