Bird ringing at Wicken Fen

A recent obituary to Chris Thorne in the latest edition of the BTO's Lifecycle magazine evoked memories of my early ringing career as a trainee, and later C, permit ringer at Wicken Fen as part of the Wicken Fen Groupof which Chris was 'Ringer in charge'

My ringing career started in the winter 0f 1976/77when I was birding my usual local patch in Suffolk and found a birds leg with a metal ring attached. Sending off the details to the British Museum it came back as having been a Greenfinch ringed locally. It turned out the ringers lived in nearby Lavenham and I was able to contact them. Mike & Margaret Smith allowed me to join them in some of their ringing sessions in their garden and also in Lineage Woods where I'd found the ring.  I was soon enrolled as an official trainee and joined the Wicken Fen Group where they did most of their ringing. 

The ringing hut was a simple garden hut located in an area not open to the public known as Adventurers Fen. A routine developed where John & Margaret would pick me up on their way through to Wicken in their long wheelbase Landrover and we'd spend the day ringing. During the warmer lighter months early starts meant camping overnight and I'd get picked up after school on a Friday evening, with enough food for a couple of days,  and returned Saturday night. Sometimes we'd do a Swallow or Tree Sparrow roost on a Friday evening and I remember seeing my 1st ever Glow Worms outside my tent and the panic trying to  get an errant Shrew out of my sleeping bag! 

I loved it and was in my element. I remember getting my 1st Ringers Manual and reading it from cover to cover along with my red covered Svensson. I still have the Ringers Manual but the Svensson was given to a friend several years ago.

My original Ringers Manual partially revised in 1976

I can remember being asked the latin names of species I'd ringed and learnt many of them off by heart. My 1st ringing pliers were bought on my behalf by my trainers at the annual BTO conference. Even then some pliers were better than others and they tested several pairs before getting through pair of Lambourne ringing pliers I still own.  I also still use the original 120 mm wing rule and pesola balances (no digital balances then) and spent ages making my own ringing cones and trimming them to get an exact weight that could be deducted when using them to weigh birds. Unfortunately I mislaid my No. 2 ringing pliers years ago but wish I still had them as they're much better than the newer ones.

In those days nothing was computersied so ringing schedules had to be posted to the BTO. I had to note everything I'd ringed or processed and keep my own notes. I've still got my old records and some of the hand written scraps of paper noting what I'd ringed on a specific day. 

The ringing list makes interesting reading. Note the Turtle Dove on the 1st sheet above. They were still relatively common in the mid / late 70's and my records show I ringed a total of 4 between 1977 and when  I went to University in 1979! Yellowhammer and Nightingale are also on that list of birds ringed at Wicken Fen along with 10 Willow Tits.

My list shows I only ringed 1 House Sparrow and 1 Starling at Wicken Fen. In those days rings were free but you had to pay if you ringed 'common' species such as House Sparrow and Starling! People ask why we still ring common garden species such as Blue Tits and I point out that if we'd ringed the former two species back in the 70's, when population began to decline,  we would have picked this decline up much sooner and possibly been able to take action.  

As the names suggests Wcken Fen was predominantly fen with large phragmites beds but some areas of scrub. Reed and Sedge Warblers predominated in the summer months and these two species, along with another reed bed dweller, Reed Bunting, make up the three most common species I ringed after Blue Tit and Great Tit.

Bearded Tit was still a rare British breeding bird at this time but Wicken Fen used to get small numbers wintering and we used to make an effort to try and catch them using an old reel to reel tape player to play their call through speakers in the reed bed to attract them into the net. My old notes show I got to ring one! If my memory serves me correctly I think Wicken Fen also hosted two Dutch ringed 'beardies' which gave us a very strong clue as to where these wintering birds were coming from.

As well as ringing we used to carry out surveys and one particular favourite was the night time Owl surveys. We'd be positioned at different locations within the reserve and mark on a map any owls we heard 

One of my old owl survey sheets fro mWicken Fen

Great times and I got my C permit in 1979 and was then able to ring by myself in our local woods! I went to University in the autumn of 1979 but was lucky enough to be at Wicken in the spring when a Savi's Warbler set up territory.