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Ringing Weekend 2006

This was slightly curtailed this year due to trainers only being available for the Friday night and Saturday 4th & 5th August. In practice this worked out fine as the Sunday proved to be a wild and windy day and wouldnÕt have allowed any ringing anyway. The weekend attracted a lot of support, particularly from trainees and people wanting experience of ringing, and we are particularly grateful to Bruce and Alan for running an evening roost session at Taylodge on the Friday that produced a South African ringed Swallow. A small roost catch was also taken at Powgavie the same evening, and a Sand Martin control from Spain was eventually identified after much scrutiny of the almost illegible ring. Over the whole of the weekend Sand Martin proved the commonest bird caught, not least due to the 155 caught at the day roost by Steve and his crew at Seaside. Sedge Warblers were next at 198 and a very creditable 133 Willow Warblers were also caught, an improvement on previous years. Bearded tits were surprisingly scarce with only 23 caught, sods law dictating that catches before and after the course were higher. The ten Reed Warblers caught underlined the growth of the Tay breeding population, and this year looks set to be a bumper year for the species.

Thanks to all the trainers and TRG members who turned out to help, given the large number of very inexperienced people it was very useful to have such support. The records above include 28 retraps (most from the 5th) and 7 Controls (4 Sand Martins, 2 Swallows and a Sedge Warbler).

It should be noted that the SITA/ Tayside Biodiversity Partnership also helped fund our work in the reed beds this year by assisting with ring and equipment costs.