RSPB Minsmere.......

.............Bird ringing
My lovely holiday continued today with a trip to the RSPB reserve at Minsmere in Suffolk.
Shortly after we arrived, the sun disappeared, and it started to get a little cloudy, the cloud thickened while we ate a lovely lunch but we decided to go out onto the reserve after lunch as rain wasn't forecast for today .......How wrong we were! we had just got to the furthest part of the path (along the sea front) when the heavens opened......I have to say hiding under a tree trying to stay dry in a heavy shower, is really overated!!! we got soaked!
When the shower finally eased off Sara and Leslie went back to the car to dry off and I went to see the bird ringing demonstration.
It was really interesting, and they had a lot of different birds (all netted on the reserve) to ring. There were Blue tits, Great tits, a Dunnock, a Goldfinch, a Chiff chaff, a Cetti's warbler, a Linnet, a coal tit, a Chaffinch, and a female Sparrow hawk - which was quite a surprise!
Today's blip shows a Robin Enithacus rubecula in the process of having the ring placed on it's leg. The guy doing the ringing was a very good teacher, and I learned loads about moults etc. Each bird was given a code for age and place in moult, ringed, had its's fat and muscle level scored (1-5) and it's wing measured. They were then weighed (upside down in a film canister!) and re-released!
I would love to do a bird ringing course, I think I will look into it when I get home!