Usual procedures

The standardised trapping came to an end on the 15th June yet the trapping effort proceeded as if it were another typical spring morning. It's strange and rather amusing to us how given the choice to indulge in almost anything else, following months of early starts and ringing for at least five hours each morning, we decide to continue as usual when instead we could head out birding, have a lie-in, cook a fancy breakfast etc. As it happens, we still cast all these pleasures aside and decided to open the nets before the crack of dawn! It seems to be rather difficult breaking our routine habits...

The moth trap was also set. However, due to the trap being set in a slightly more exposed location than usual and a cooler overnight temperature than of late, the catch was significantly lower than the recent average with 25 moths trapped in total (involving 13 species).

It was also Merit's last day at the station this spring. I'd like to take the opportunity to offer a huge thank you to her for all her incredible work including ringing, data entry, observation counts, delicious cooking, providing all of us at the station with great company over the past few weeks, and indulging us all in a steady supply of baked goods! We wish you all the best and look forward to seeing you in the autumn!

Merit and I modelling our new satchels (which contain our bird bags for ringing). A greatly anticipated improvement on the norm as we now have a spare hand not having to carry a bunch of loose bird bags around with us on every round!

Ringing:

• 1 Nordlig/Lille Gråsisken (Common/Lesser Redpoll, Acanthis flammea/cabaret)
• 1 Gransanger (Chiffchaff, Phylloscopus collybita)
• 1 Tornirisk (Linnet, Linaria cannabina)
• 2 Bogfinke (Chaffinch, Fringilla coelebs)
• 3 Skovspurv (Tree Sparrow, Passer monatnus)
• 2 Tornsanger (Common Whitethroat, Curruca communis) 
• 2 Starlings (Stær, Sturnus vulgaris)

People: Merit, David, Samuel.