After two weeks of gales and rain the weather finally improved enough for me to get in a morning’s ringing, although I ended up processing birds in the back of the car at one point as a heavy shower put a halt to proceedings and dumped 15mm of rain in 20 minutes. Luckily, I was able to open the nets again for long enough to dry them out before packing up.
The star bird of the day was a 1st year Marsh Tit. Uncommon in this part of coastal Devon, this was only the second to be trapped at SML this century!
A total of 56 new birds were ringed including 1 Marsh Tit, 23 Blackcap, 13 Chiffchaff, 2 Goldcrest, 3 Reed Warbler, 3 Sedge Warbler, 2 Willow Warbler and 2 Reed Bunting.
Also UK ringed controls of Chiffchaff and Reed Warbler were trapped.
The Early Worm 