Joyful Jackdaw

Finishing a hugely successful week's ringing in Greater Manchester with Kane, Zac and Ciaran, no sooner had I got back to Bangor, the weekend was upon us and I was out ringing again with Steve, on Saturday 5th March, at a new site, over on Anglesey near Moelfre.

Steve had been in contact with Mike, who has had a considerable amount of Yellowhammers coming to seed in his front garden. So before the winter was out, we made our way over early on Saturday morning and set 3 nets in the front garden, 1 net in the back and another alongside a hedgerow so we would hopefully catch a variety of species during the morning..

As our main aim was to catch the Yellowhammers, during the morning we noticed that they weren't venturing quite near enough to our nets, but we very happy to catch just 1 male..

Throughout the morning, a total of 60 birds were caught. This was yet another great training opportunity for myself - setting and taking down nets and getting extraction numbers up. Species caught included:- Dunnock, Robin, Blackbird, Starling, Blue tit, Great tit, Coal tit, Siskin, Yellowhammer and Jackdaw.

This first-winter Jackdaw that found itself in one of the nets in the front garden was good practise for the training side of things. Aged as a {5}, with clear pointed tail feathers and clear hints of brown in the primaries. If this bird would have been an adult, the tail feathers would have been lovely and rounded and quite broad with an overall glossier appearance.. A great bird all the same!

The morning was also a great opportunity for new trainee Zac, to practise mist-net extraction, ageing and taking wing measurements.

Huge thanks to Mike for letting us ring in his garden and for providing us with cups of tea and coffee throughout the morning.. What will I be ringing next I wonder?!