Early birds

This morning I had some mixed feelings as my alarm went off at 4.15am! But I was up early to meet local bird expert Chris Wittles and have my first experience of bird ringing. Chris set up the nets last night near the river and Tern Bridge and as the first birds flew this morning, he and colleague Peter were catching them in the long nets, gently releasing them, recording details of species, age, gender and size, ringing them and letting them go. Jess and I joined them to observe how the process works and to see some of Attingham's wildlife up close - and what a fantastic morning we had! In 2.5 hours we recorded reed buntings, garden warblers, great tits, robins, a black cap, a wren, a chaffinch and a greater spotted woodpecker. The information will be fed into the British Trust for Ornithology database so that we can monitor the variety of species and their numbers over time. It was fantastic to see and hold some of these beautiful birds and I managed to get a few pictures too - I'm already looking forward to the next time (though I will go to bed a bit earlier next time!)

A Garden Warbler

Peter holds a wren

 

Juvenile robins - see the first blush of red on the slightly older robin on the left

A reed bunting

My thanks to Chris and Peter for sharing their time and expertise with us!