Making the most of calm conditions and a decent break at Christmas I managed to open my mist nets on several occasions.
At the end of December there were good numbers of starlings about in the garden and I hoped that we might catch a few. Normally they are very clever and manage to evade the nets but I was catching a few.
Rachael was extracting a bird that was already ringed and assumed to be one of the birds we had caught here in the past so it was quite a shock when she said that it was wearing a Lithuanian ring! The bird was processed, photographed, released and the details were submitted to the BTO.
It was good to get the details back quickly and find out more about the bird.
It was caught on the Baltic Coast, north of Gdansk at the Ventes Ragas Ornithological Station in June 2016 before heading 1361km west and ending up in my garden.
A pretty cool record and my best control (someone else's bird) by a mile.
