Cracking day!!

This morning was nigh on perfect for ringing and given there had been an influx of birds onto the reserve, we had a superb morning's ringing.

We caught 121 new birds of which we had a species record of 52 Sedge warblers. There were also 28 reed warblers but disappointingly single figure numbers of blackcap, whitethroat, chiffchaff and willow warbler.

Of the non warbler species we had yet another kingfisher; but the star bird of the day was a juvenile Water Rail--proving that this species had ( as we suspected) bred on the reserve this year. I hoped we would catch this species since the bait in the walk-in traps had been eaten regularly over recent days.

The only real disappointment was that we didn't see, hear nor catch a tree pipit since other places have been recording them as present and ringed at several sites--next time perhaps ??

Trainee Sam looking pretty happy holding a juvenile Water Rail