For a few years now I've been helping out at bird ringing demonstrations at Liverpool Universities Ness Botanic gardens run by the Merseyside Ringing Group (MRG). See here for more details of events held at Ness Gardens.
They're always well attended and its a real pleasure talking to people about the birds and the purpose of bird ringing as well as being able to interact with youngsters who'll, hopefully, take an interest in the natural world and become the next generation of conservationists.
The most recent event coincided with a poor weather forecast but luckily the weather held for us and we caught a good variety of birds to keep the public happy. It was definitely quieter than previous ringing demos as most of the birds are pairing up and on territory but finch numbers were good with Siskin the commonest species. We also caught tow Redpolls - the first caught at Ness Gardens.
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| Male Chaffinch |
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| Male Siskin |
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| Redpoll |
After the first Cetti's Warbler was caught and ringed by John last year it was still a surprise to catch another unringed bird. It was sexed by a male on biometrics with the males being significantly longer winged and heavier than the females. I learnt something new from Nikki as well as I'd only ringed juvenile Cetti's previously and hadn't had cause to look at the ageing criteria in Laurent Demongin's "Identification Guide to birds in the hand."
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| Cetti's Warbler |
Occasionally 2nd calender year Cetti's Warblers retain their juvenile longest undertail coverts and these are noticeably faded and worn. This bird has retained these so was aged as a Euring 5 or 2nd calendar year.
The wonderful ladies who organise these educational events at Ness ensured the ringers were kept well fortified with tea and cakes from their on site cafe and we had a steady stream of moof visitors, young and old, all day. Some of the visitors return for every ringing demo and it was nice to see some familiar faces.
Ness Botanic Gardens is one of the few places in the north west where you can find the naturalised chlorophyll free parasitic Purple Toothwort. They obtain their nutrition from the roots of the host plant and
don't have any leaves.
A great day with 38 birds being processed of 14 species. I'm looking forward to the next event in August that'll, hoepfully, be warmer!
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