Yesterday morning I was up early again to do some ringing at Knepp Estate. After walking down to the site, to the sound of calling Tawny Owls, we set the nets up, 3 in fact. One was ideal for Linnets and hopefully one or two Swallows as part of the net was in an open field and there were already some feeding high in the sky. After the nets were set up we did the first net round. I extracted (took out the net) Whitethroat, Blue Tit, Chiffchaff and Blackcap.
Once I had ringed the birds, suddenly the sky was full of House Martins and Swallow. Hoping a few would go in the net, we quickly changed the tape. And they certainly did! Swarming around the net, we waited in anticipation as some of them perched on the top net shelf. After 5 minutes we did another net round and it was my job to extract all of the birds in that net. It was full of Swallow and House Martin as well as a Blackbird and Chiffchaff. Finally after extracting them all I headed back, my arm heavy with bird bags.
Whilst ringing the birds we also realised that mixed in with the Swallows and House Martin were 2 Sand Martin. All of the birds ringed were juveniles.
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| Sand Martin |
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| House Martin |
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| Swallow |
Throughout the rest of the morning we caught quite a few more birds, including a Garden Warbler, 2 Lesser Whitethroat, a Chaffinch which was the first adult for the site and Reed Warbler. I also ringed and extracted my first Linnet.
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| Linnet |
Overall it was a great morning and a great end to the summer holidays with 4 ringing ticks!
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