Blog entry courtesy of Ian Lewis at - http://gryllosblog.wordpress.com/

We were invited to do a ringing demonstration for the Forage Festival at Arne RSPB on the 26th October. Paul and I prepared a 180 ft net ride for the occasion but bad weather reduced us to ringing with a 30ft net in the lee of the visitor centre. With still and sunny conditions today we obtained permission to return and investigate the practicality of ringing at our original site.
As expected most of the birds ringed were tits, Robins, Dunnocks and Blackbirds. However a couple of larger birds provided a big surprise!

This first year Magpie was caught at dawn

Later Shaun returned from a net round with this Buzzard ! I have only seen an adult Buzzard in the hand once before, in Israel in 1986 and this was a first for the others.

There was no sign of immaturity what so ever and the bird was given an age code of 8 meaning it was hatched in 2010 or before.

The chance of a standard mist net holding as big a bird as a Buzzard is rather slim. No wonder Shaun looks so smug.

This penetrating stare was probably the last thing that many a rabbit saw.

Yellow and Fire

A slow morning pleasantly ticked over with guest ringer Mick Netherwood joining us for a session at Durlston.
Mick N is no stranger to the area as he Mick C used to visit regularly throughout the 1980's and 90's - ringing with the group further up the coast at the renowned Chapman's Pool.

This morning he seemed to serve as a lucky charm as although we didn't catch a great deal on quantity we more than made up for this with superb quality.

First to come out of the new picnic ride was a fantastic Firecrest. First of the autumn for Durlston, so always nice to see.

The pointed, tipped outer tail feathers and deep orange feathers within the crest identified this Firecrest as a 1st calender year male

This was shortly followed by Gryllo popping back from the same net ride half and hour later and calling us all over to make wild guesses for what he had in his bag.
To our delight i safely pulled a Yellow-browed Warbler out of the bag!
Although this species is a fairly regular visitor to Durlston, this was the first one ringed and not before time judging by the number seen throughout the country this autumn.

The long awaited Yellow-browed Warbler

The rest of the morning's totals were made up of Goldfinch, Robin, Dunnock and Wren.
Whilst general birding included Goldcrest, Firecrest, Redwing, Starling, Redpoll, Goldfinch, Brambling, Siskin, Linnet, Meadow Pipit, Sparrowhawk and Kestrel.


Throughout the later part of October the group continued to ring at Durlston, catching the usual fare of Chiffchaff, Blackcap, Swallow and Goldfinch that made up the majority of mornings - the later two species have been particularly numerous, such as on on 15th October when a day total of 227 was reached.

Posted by Simon Breeze