Bird ringing at Knepp Estate

On Sunday morning I woke up at 3:45 to arrive at Knepp estate (one of the largest re-wilding projects in Lowland Europe) at 5:00 for a ringing session. I was really looking forward to it as I had never been to Knepp Estate before.


 After meeting with some of the ringing 'team' we started to put the nets up. Whilst doing so I heard the squawk of a Tawny Owl in the distance. 2 Great Crested Grebe where on the pond (Hammer Pond) next to us along with there chicks. A Cormorant also kept flying over. Overall I ringed quite a few Chiffchaff as well as a Dunnock, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Garden Warbler and 2 juvenile Blackbirds. It was also nice to practise my extracting (getting the birds out of the mist nets) because of the variety and amount of birds. Whilst extracting, James (@My_Wild_Life) spotted a Purple Emperor, my first in fact.
The extremely camouflaged underwing of a Purple Emperor 
One of my highlights from the session was a Juvenile Green Woodpecker which as we were doing a net round it flew in the net. As quickly as possible a couple of the ringers managed to carefully take it out of the net (without getting their fingers hammered!). Although I didn't ring it I was quite excited to be able to let it go. It was really amazing to see such a cool bird so close-up. It's beautiful eyes which were grey-blue and the detail in its feather were really noticeable.



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