A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.

Male Bullfinch (Pyrrhula pyrrhula)

Today's ringing demonstration was blighted by steady (but mostly light) rain for about three hours. This was the first time in seventeen years that it has rained on this annual event! The birds welfare is always a priority and only a small number of birds were caught.

Four Bullfinches in one session were nice and Goldcrests always please the visitors although today's birds were light in weight (4.5, 4.7, 4.7 and 4.9g) probably attributable to the weather.

There was a particularly interesting retrap of a Blue Tit ringed 7 November 2004, now caught for the sixth time but its last capture was three-and-a-half years ago on 26 October 2007. Considering that 90% of small birds die in their first year to survived this long in the wild is not bad going! :-)