23/03/12 - Friday at Forge

Today we were at another NNR within 'our area' Forge Valley (near Scarborough). We headed over to meet up with the Duke of Edinburgh lads for a day of step building, but working at Forge also provided us with the opportunity to put a couple of nets up around the feeding station to hopefully catch a few birds to show the guys. It was abit quieter than the last time we were there (November) and the Chaffinch seemed to have got very wise to the nets! But in an hour or so we still managed a decent catch of 52 birds (47 new and 5 re-traps). The lads all enjoyed being able to see the birds up close and they each had the opportunity to hold and release one.

 Willing volunteers!

Alistair before releasing a Blue Tit

During our last visit to Forge in November we caught 3 new Nuthatch and 3 re-traps, well today we re-caught one of the new birds ringed that day and also two new ones, the Nuthatches were definitely the star birds for the day! 

Nuthatch

Along with the D of E guys we also had a lot of interest from members of the public, they turned up just at the right time to see a Nuthatch in the hand, they all went very off happy and with a photo and a nice memory!

Craig showing visitors the Nuthatch

Total catch: (re-traps in brackets)

Blue Tit 24
Chaffinch 2
Coal Tit 2 (1)
Great Tit 14
Marsh Tit 3 (3)
Nuthatch 2 (1)

For the report of our last outing at Forge Valley NNR see - http://ldvnnr.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/181111-visit-to-forge.html