Holy moly. Today was a big day. Based on the forecast we weren’t expecting to get more than a reasonable flow of birds into the nets, but from the moment we opened robins started to appear like magic. With just three of us we were working non-stop from the word go to extract birds and process them without leaving any of them waiting for too long. Just as we were disappearing under a tide of robins and a goldcrest invasion, Hans and Bo turned up to help us with the rounds for long enough to get back in control of the numbers. We had the nets open for 6.30am and didn’t close until 7.30pm - a) because the birds just kept coming, and b) because we are all pretty keen beans (very tired beans now!). We didn't manage to eat breakfast until 2pm because we were so flat out! For our efforts we ringed between us 472 birds and recorded 14 recaptures. Of those 248 were robins and 196 were goldcrests!! It’s quite something when you’re working with a bird that makes a chiffchaff seem beefy.

Although our day was dominated by these two species, a notable mention goes to the siskin ringed by Ramón (a first for him), and a very exciting first for Henrik - a grey wagtail! Only four grey wagtails have been caught in the history of this station, so it definitely required a celebratory beer.

We are off to bed now. Data below!

Cheers!
Gail