When I woke at 4:30 that morning, I was surprised to find that it was slightly light outside. Barely anybody was up yet, but a few of us went outside to check the moth traps that had been set the night before. There was a good range of species among the egg-boxes, from Hebrew Character to Oak Beauty, and a few were potted and taken inside.
Breakfast was in full swing when we reappeared, and after a couple of rounds of toast lunch was prepared and bags were packed. We were to be away from Home Farm at around 6:30, and heading towards the bird ringing site for the morning session. With camera and binoculars swung around my neck, and boots tightly laced up, we set off on the minibus into the woodland and heathland habitats.
The journey took us through a local village, and lasted about 10 minutes, but when we arrived a Robin proved to be our dawn choir. Shortly after, a red car pulled up with a precious cargo. White drawstring bags, each with a wriggling resident. The bags were hung from a pole, and all the ringing equipment was laid out on the parcel shelf. Bird ringing out of a car boot, could it be any more perfect?
To kick things off, Tommy (the resident ringer) brought out a wonderful female Kingfisher, dazzling green-blue plumage glinting in the dawn light. The orange beneath the knife of a bill betrayed its sex, and the process began. The bird’s wing was measured and aged, and then she was placed head-first into a pot which was placed on a scale. All the data was recorded in the logbook, and eventually she was ringed with the corresponding size and released down by the river.
The rest of the morning passed by in a blur. Two Grey Wagtail were next up, a bird which I had never seen so close up before, their yellow undersides stark against the hand. Third was a female Brambling, a lifer for me and a popular winter visitor. The males were incredibly beautiful, but these birds can occasionally be quite erratic in their movements to Britain, depending often on the crop of beechmast, a crucial food source for them.
The final bird of this first set was quite possibly the best. Powerful, wedge like bill, rusty orange plumage and rather nippy. A female Hawfinch was clutched in the hand of Tommy, an increasingly scarce and shy bird. Its main food being cherry seeds, it used its huge bill (about as big as my finger) to split them and get inside. This was probably the bird you least wanted to have any attitude while in the hand.
Over the course of the morning, regular trips to the net turned up another THREE KINGFISHERS (four in total), as well as regulars such as Dunnock, Chaffinches and Blue and Great Tits. After exploring the boggy ground surrounding the river, we ate lunch before clambering back into the minibus and driving off to Eyeworth Ponds, where the Camp’s Bioblitz challenge would take place. A bioblitz, if you didn’t know, is where you take an area of land and record as many species inside of it as you can, from fungi to mammals. Anything goes really. Sometimes it can be used for conservation, other times just as a contest, or even both.
As the group ambled into the woods, a large group of Fallow Deer began to half-retreat, but remained there watching us as the rules and teams were sorted. My team ended up with 84 species, but we still didn’t win! Hats off to the winning team, with 117! Avian highlights of this one included Marsh Tit, Goldcrest and Coal Tit, as well as a distant Red Kite.
The trees seemed watchful here, and were older and gave homes to all around it. A fallen one of these was where we pitched our base, and read out the three scores. At about 3:30PM, we set off back towards the CET (Countryside Education Trust, where we were staying).
After some time to relax and unwind slightly, the hour before dinner held a Careers Talk from Katiana Saleiko, a Species Reintroduction Officer at Forestry England. She was incredibly knowledgeable, and had experienced many different projects, from volunteering to species release. The props she handed around after were particularly impressive, including beaver sticks and a ring for a White-Tailed Eagle. It was really great, and quite informative about the future careers I could go into, and what qualifications and work I would need to do. It really was quite brilliant, and I enjoyed every minute of it. It, in a way, made me feel motivated and want to push on even more than I already did.
To round off the evening, we went on a walk around some marshland (again in pitch black), and Tommy did a bit of lamping on top of this. We’d got halfway up the path when he rung Marcus and we turned back rapidly to find a Jack Snipe clutched in his hand, his ringing equipment neatly placed on the parcel shelf. It was essentially the same setup as this morning. And this was another lifer as well! It was truly incredible, with rich colouring and a striped crown. And it looked smaller than a Blackbird! When it was released, it remained where it had been placed carefully down, thinking that we could not see it. And it was hard to, as it blended in so well with the ground in the darkness.
To finish the walk, the bat detector was brought out by Marcus and we listened as it picked up what we struggled to hear and see. Bats have never been my area of expertise, but it picked up quite a few! And then it was back to the minibus and then to the CET, for another late night. It had been an absolutely fantastic day, completely surpassing my expectations (which were very high to begin with!). It had been so enjoyable, and made me look forward to the next day so much more. It was truly valuable to begin to get to know like-minded people who love nature just as much as me and who are around my age, so that I feel a lot more comfortable. I am not much of an expert in fields other than birds, such as bugs and plants, and it was really great to learn from other people who were experts in these, and grow my knowledge further.
The Bovey Birder 