Willow Tit - A Day With The Scouse Ringer

Today I had one of the best days I have ever had, in fact it was even more enjoyable than the bird fair last year. As soon I met Peter, Pete and Daniel (one of his trainees) I could already tell the day was going to be great. We caught quite a bit considering the windy weather. The first few we had out of the nets were a 

Lesser Redpoll and a Brambling, closely followed by a few Chaffinch and Blue Tits

And then when we got back to the area where we had set the ringing table up, I looked inside a bag and saw a Willow Tit, a first for me so you wouldn't be surprised that I couldn't wait until we could see it up close.

As soon as it was passed to me, all I was thinking about was about how lucky I was, and how amazing it was.

The only bird I actually put a ring on was a Willow Tit (since it was my first session)  however it was worth it, what an amazing bird! It took a size A ring.

After the Willow Tit, we soon went back to check the other nets, and boy we had a lot of Blue Tits. I ended up reading out the re-trap rings. All the birds we caught today, had rings or were about to, and so I guessed all the ring letters and got them all right (after a bit of research from the past few weeks).

More Blue Tits. Here you can see me reading out the code on the ring.

This Great Tit is an 6 adult. Now you can tell this because if you look on the outer bits of the wing you can see they are all a lovely blue colour. However if it had greenish feathers it would be a 5 juvenile.

I would of thought the Robin we caught would be aggressive and agitated , but whilst it was in my hands it was really calm.

As you can see Peter's dad Pete loves to hold birds.

Today's birds:

Robin

Blue Tit 

Great Tit

Long Tailed Tit

Willow Tit

Blackbird

Chaffinch

Lesser Redpoll

Brambling

Goldfinch

Greenfinch

And of course a big thanks to Peter and Pete for letting me join them. I really hope I can come again soon.