Fieldfare number CL42709

One of the things I do is to catch birds to ring them. This is part of a national scheme and required a lot of training before I was qualified to ring on my own. All the data goes off to a central database and is used as a very important tool for conservation.
One of my neighbours kindly lets me ring in his young plantation and over the last four weeks I have ringed around 120 birds. Today was a good day as many migrants had arrived overnight - probably grounded by some heavy rainstorms.
The Fieldfare pictured above is a thrush that breeds in the north of Europe but is a common winter visitor to the UK. This particular one is an adult female. It is seldom however that you can appreciate their beauty clattering about in a hedge on a dull winter's day. Today I ringed (never rang for some obscure grammatical reason) two of them along with my first two warblers here - a Blackcap and a Chiffchaff. In all a total of thirteen birds are now proud possessors of a shiny new ring after my efforts of the day.
It is unlikely that I will ever hear about them again but fingers crossed. If you do ever find a dead bird then do see if it has a ring on its leg. Each ring has a unique number and an address. If you send it off you will get a reply saying where it was ringed as will the ringer.
All part of understanding that hugely complex but amazing thing that is bird migration.