Friday mornings are turning into a regular trainee session at one of our farm feeding stations-and so it was on Friday; but with only one of our trainees available, Jenni had plenty of extraction and ringing practice. A steady flow of (mainly) blue and great tits always provides good training--with a few goldfinches for variety. Unfortunately the siskins/chaffinches and brambling weren't playing today.
Just time for a quick bite of lunch and a skim of the paper and we were gathering at Belvide for another try at the starling roost. A good turnout of experienced team members plus a couple of trainees was supplemented by a welcome visit from our friend Darren who now lives and rings in Israel, but for whom starling would be a ringing 'tick'.
The initial influx of reed buntings was disappointing with only a handful caught out of 30-40 which dropped in.
However, it wasn't long after 16.30 that the starlings gathered and were clearly attracted by the Sten Walhstrom sound. Further excitement was generated by the presence of two sparrowhawks and a peregrine constantly buzzing the murmuration. At the end we caught a very respectable 53 new starlings which we were all happy with--and Darren was very pleased--'' a bit different from Tristram's'' was a parting shot that was kind of difficult to know exactly how to respond to.......
A fairly relaxed start on Saturday morning saw much of the same team gather at Wildside Activity Centre in urban Wolverhampton for an annual demonstration. There was a great turnout of visitors-which is more than could be said for the birds. However, three goldcrests and a couple of long tailed tits and a song thrush gave us plenty of opportunity to delight the visitors and stimulate discussion.
All in all a good weekend for the team--thanks to everyone who helped-in person and/or spirit.
NB for anyone interested who missed or would like to hear about our exploits in Mongolia in 2018--I'm giving an illustrated talk in Brewood at the Three Stirrups pub on Wenesday 30th Jan at 7.30--free entry.
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