A typical day in the office

Working on a nature reserve does occasionally have its perks. Today's piece of excitement was a kestrel that was hunting probably just 20 feet away from a volunteer and myself. It stooped onto a vole and then proceeded to rip it apart and devour it right in front of us on the path! Whilst taking photo's I quickly noticed and ring on its left leg. I would imagine its a bird ringed locally as pulli have been ringed on the out skirts of Weymouth. Also we re-trapped a Kestrel whilst wagtail ringing last winter and that turned out to be one ringed only 2 miles away!

Another nice aspect of my job is leading guided walks. Yesterday evening I was leading a walk to look for herons. Saw a few Grey Herons and 3 Brown Herons (Bitterns if your wondering). As you can imagine the punters were pretty pleased!

After work this evening I decided to have a look in town for the Pied Wagtail roost. As I mentioned in the first paragraph, last winter a lot of Pied Wagtails were colour ringed in Weymouth at a roost site near the harbour. This year they aren't using the roost and we don't know where they are roosting. Despite now kipping down near the harbour they still gather on the pavilion car park at dusk before heading off to roost. This gave me a nice opportunity to do a bit of ring reading. Got 5 colour combinations which wasn't bad for 15 minutes watching.

Must also add that I finally got round to getting the Lodmoor Long-billed Dowitcher on my year list plus Water Pipit which was showing incredibly well in front of the viewing shelter.