Another superb day at Ashwoods

The advert for the ringing demonstration at Ashwoods was my last post before jetting off to Costa Rica--(can't recommend it highly enough by the way)--and this post describes the result.
After much angst as to whether to go ahead in the face of the gloom and doom reports about Storm Freya, the Met Office provided some common sense advice that the worst of the conditions would appear later in the day. So with the support of the team we agreed to give it a go--with worst case scenario us spending some time eating cakes in the tearoom!!
As things turned out we had a superb morning with lots of visitors and a very good catch of birds to show them and promote our activities. We ringed 73 new birds with -as usual- the majority being blue and great tits. However, we had some real bonus birds in the form of 11 siskin; 6 goldfinch; 3 chaffinch; 2 great spot woodpeckers and 2 brambling.
The team worked really well together with a guest appearance from Sadie from the Chelmarsh group and everyone enjoyed the event--with birthday boy Pat providing cake afterwards too--result!
On behalf of Belvide Ringers I would really like to thank the owners of Ashwoods and in particular conservation officer Tom for hosting the event and providing a good supply of birds via well-stocked feeders. Also a massive thank you to the large number of visitors who, as usual, provided some great company and stimulating questions, as well as very generous donations to help us continue our activities. See you later in the year for our next event--date TBC.
Colin