After a long hiatus, I've recently felt inspired to start writing again, and wanted to share some of my experiences of bird ringing in Wytham Woods, Oxford. 'Ringing' is a bit of a mysterious term, easily confused with bell-ringing (I found this out the hard way), but in the bird world refers to the process of catching birds, recording data and putting a ring on their leg to track populations. I feel really privileged to be able to take part in ringing, and the ability to see birds up close has completely changed the way I view them. Other people have worded this much more elegantly than me, but it's in these new 'ways of seeing' that I feel closer to nature.
I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that it was love at first sight with me and bird ringing. I know that others have felt the same - the first time you hold a bird in your hand, you see up close something that is usually fleeting and far away, and it's like a secret has been revealed, or a curtain has been lifted, or you've been momentarily transported to another dimension.
Ringing also comes with a steep learning curve. It's really challenging learning how to handle birds gently enough so as not to harm them, but firmly enough so they don't fly away before you can put the ring on and get the information you need - this is what happened the second time I held a woodpecker, which are even more striking up close.
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Holding a woodpecker
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| Wren |
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| Nuthatch on a sunny day |
As I've got more practiced at interacting with the birds, I've been able to ring a variety of species. At the moment this list stands at:
- Blackcap
- Blue tit
- Great tit
- Marsh tit
- Goldcrest
- Coal tit
- Long tailed tit
- Wren
- Great spotted woodpecker
- Blackbird
- Dunnock
- Greenfinch
- Robin
- Nuthatch
My favourites so far are nuthatches, goldcrests and greenfinches. I've got a lot more learning to do - especially with extraction, the process of taking a bird out of the mist net - but I'm really excited about this, and it should be useful for future fieldwork with silvereyes.
Weirdly, I've come to really enjoy the early mornings on the bus out to Wytham. The open fields, the biting cold, the sunshine (sometimes), it all seems to do good things to my brain. I'm sure it'll be even lovelier in summer.
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| Frosty morning in the woods |
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