Last Ringing Course - August 2009
The Ringing Course was held this year from Thursday 13 August through until Sunday 16 August.
As usual the Course started on Thursday lunchtime and nets were erected as the delegates arrived resulting in 91 birds being ringed. As usual Friday was the main ringing day with a further 237 birds caught followed by somewhat disappointing totals of 65 and 89 on the Saturday and Sunday. However the total of 482 ringed was the fourth best even if one excepts Martins from previous years and the five delegates who attended managed to ring plenty of birds of a good range of species. Highlights of the Course included a Nightingale, 8 Mute Swans, 5 Pochard, 14 Tufted Duck, 7 Moorhen, 8 Coot and 55 Chiffchaff. A total of 49 Sedge Warblers was lower than the previous two courses as were 61 Reed Warblers but compare well with totals from courses run prior to this.
We tried a slightly different system this year by allocating a "buddy" to each delegate who travelled with them around the three ringing sites. This did give a continuity which we had found lacking in previous years and seemed to work well.
The evenings followed our usual tried and tested system starting with a barbecue on Thursday night, followed by a choice of Indian or Chinese takeaways on Saturday and culminating in lasagna with bean stew and bread on Sunday evening. Breakfasts were delivered to the two remote ringing bases and lunch was provided on a help yourself basis at the Tollgate Centre.
On Sunday all of the delegates were informally asked what they thought they had got from the course and were advised how to progress. All had enjoyed themselves and as is usual, were already aware of their weaknesses, which were neither major nor incorrigible.
As usual we managed to fit in a little bird-watching and highlights were provided by a Peregrine which flew low over one log session and a succession of three Little Egrets also overflying call-over at just long enough intervals to totally muck up the ticker log entry for the day.
Once again it only remains to thank everybody involved in the Course but perhaps especially John and Jan Griffin who provided the barbecue, lasagna, fresh fruit salad and ice-cream and Sally Harris who cooked and distributed the breakfasts and ensured that adequate grazing facilities were provided for lunch.