The day of ringing came and it fell on a day off, so I set off to get there around 08:30 knowing I had to leave earlier for Mothers Day. On nearing Beeston I was contacted by John Day to get my bum there in a hurry otherwise I would miss seeing the captured Kingfisher, so luckily for me I was 2 minutes away.
It was a busy morning too with plenty of activity from finches and the usual garden birds. It's most enjoyable listening to the finer details of plumage and ageing, whilst studying the birds at close quarters.
After a very short wait it was time to unbag the Jewel of the morning, the Kingfisher, and what beauties these birds are, absolutely stunning. It gracefully posed whilst being handled by Sue and then released as soon as possible to cause less stress, unluckily for everyone else that did not get to arrive in time, I was glad of getting up that bit earlier on this occasion.
The day of ringing came and it fell on a day off, so I set off to get there around 08:30 knowing I had to leave earlier for Mothers Day. On nearing Beeston I was contacted by John Day to get my bum there in a hurry otherwise I would miss seeing the captured Kingfisher, so luckily for me I was 2 minutes away.
It was a busy morning too with plenty of activity from finches and the usual garden birds. It's most enjoyable listening to the finer details of plumage and ageing, whilst studying the birds at close quarters.
After a very short wait it was time to unbag the Jewel of the morning, the Kingfisher, and what beauties these birds are, absolutely stunning. It gracefully posed whilst being handled by Sue and then released as soon as possible to cause less stress, unluckily for everyone else that did not get to arrive in time, I was glad of getting up that bit earlier on this occasion.
As with this time last year the mothing turned out to be a success, although not as grand as last years tally. Here John is carefully removing the moths from the cartons, I think it was around 44 moths trapped which isn't bad considering the night before where I live, not too far away, we had heavy downpours and then a chilly night thereafter.
Most of the haul were Lead Coloured Drabs and Common Quakers, with Hebrew Characters and a few Small Quakers.
The "pink headed" Hebrew Character, below, was a vivid colour and one I don't recall seeing before.
Some moths even helped with identifying themselves by resting on the page of their own namesake....most helpful of them!.
