Ben has been full-on developing his career over recent years and his ringing has been largely confined to trips such as Portugal or petrel ringing on Islean nan Ron. The lack of a good ringing site nearby didn't help either. That has all changed-big time- and it's brilliant to see his enthusiasm come back.
He has aquired a great site near his work which is an old gravel workings which is beautifully overgrown and managed by the local wildlife trust --who just happen to be very enthusiastic about getting a ringer involved to provide more data on the birds on site.
The site is massive so Ben has sensibly restricted himself to an area which provides both hedgerow and reed-bed habitats. I went out there yesterday evening to see if we could develop a Swallow roost site in the large areas of reeds. Ben had been there all afternoon and already had a decent catch of quality birds. We did manage to have a catch of Swallows and Sand Martins coming in to roost so it looks like we will be able to repeat this. It will help trainees in the group to gain experience of operating a roost which provides opportunities to learn a raft of new skills.
As well as yesterday, he also did an early morning session last Thursday--the combined catch was 95 new birds!! Most were migrants including:-
14 Sand Martin, 7 Swallow, 25 Reed Warbler, 7 Sedge Warbler, 5 Garden Warbler, 6 Cetti's Warbler, 9 Chiffchaff, 4 Blackcap and 2 Whitethroat--but strangely no Willow Warblers?
Sorry we have no pictures from these sessions--but hope we will have next time.
Well done Ben!!--we have Gareth and Sam out 'on duty' today at other sites--reports coming when I have their results........
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