brewoodringers

It's a long time since the group have had access to a new winter roost site--and an initial recce of the site suggested that it could be good. We decided to give it a try tonight and discovered that it was actually much better than we had hoped.

Although species variety was very limited, the number caught was excellent; with over 80 new birds caught. 73 Chaffinch were ringed with several being long-winged ( ie probably of continental origin). However, we had to release 6 Chaffinches without ringing them because they had the encrusted legs which this species seems prone to. The only other species ringed were 3 Robins. Obviously while this is a great start, the coming years will show how regularly the site is used, how frequently birds return to it, and what range of species use it. All of this data will be useful in a range of ways--not least for us to try to save the site which may be under threat from forestry management.