The team goes March-ing on........

 I've just been reviewing progress in March 2021, and it's fair to say that I've been really impressed by the success that we have had. One of our key priorities is training new ringers--but to do so we need good totals of birds so that trainees get plenty of practice.

We ringed just over 900 birds, of 34 different species during March--thereby providing our smashing trainees with plenty to keep them going. This has been even more important given that lock-down arrangements have meant access to training events for most trainees has been difficult to say the least.

Rather than set out a potentially tedious list of all our species caught-I thought it might be better to take each active team member and briefly set out their highlights:-

I have mentioned Pat quite a lot recently mainly because his rural Welsh garden feeders have played host to lots of birds including many Siskin. This has continued during March at what Pat now calls  ''Siskin City'' returning a total of 179 Siskin plus a good supporting cast including 44 Goldfinch.

Like Pat, Jenni has recently achieved her 'C' permit and is using it enthusiastically, with several farmland and garden feeders on her patch. One garden feeder in particular has begun to attract good numbers of Siskin, and Jen has ringed 73 plus 41 Goldfinch. In her small home garden she managed to catch a beast of a bird as shown below:-

Woodpigeons are beefy birds which often simply roll out of mist nets so not too many actually get caught ( certainly compared to the number of them there are around!!). Novel species like this provide a welcome variation from the many many Blue and Great tits we catch....

Gareth has had his licence for a bit longer, and he is pressing ahead trying out some new sites. He has been rewarded, not by large numbers of birds--but by some quality in having the group's first migrant Blackcap and Chiffchaff on return from their winter quarters either in southern

Europe or north Africa.

Kevin is an experienced ringer and is pushing on with some new sites also. One garden in particular is showing great promise for the future even though it's been a bit late for him to start this winter. He has ringed 25 Siskin there but the most significant species has been the 6 Brambling he's ringed. The garden is part of a mature woodland with some ancient Beech trees. Brambling love beechmast so we are hoping in future years ( especially when there is a good beechmast crop) Kev will catch more of this splendid migrant finch which I featured in a recent post.

At the other end of the experience scale, Paul has been ringing for almost 40 years!! For those of us who are a bit long in the tooth, new kit, new trainees and new species all help to keep us enthusiastic. This no more evident than at Paul's main farm site, where he installed with the support of the farm manager a ''spinner'' continuous feed dispenser:-

You can see the seed hopper at the top and the small motor at the bottom with a spinner device between the two. It's also pretty 'green' --you can see the small solar panel to keep the mechanism working. The regular supply of seed has attracted good numbers of birds, and Paul has managed, by regular visits, to ring 108 Linnets, 84 Yellowhammer, 33 Goldfinch, 24 Chaffinch and 24 Reed Bunting, among other species. It's given all us old timers a boost!!