Not Really Aviary Material .....

[Outlaw Pete 2,224]

I hear that, if you put an eel in a fish tank, and give it the right conditions, it'll settle down quite nicely.

 

However, comes what ever time it is that eels normally head off for the Sargasso Sea? The bloody thing will become a complete lunatic and thrash about till .....

 

Ghastly thought then, anyone ever confining a migratory bird, like a swallow. Imagine, even that huge Snowdon Aviary holding them. It doesn't bear thinking about.

 

Anyway, these little beauties live in my horse stall. Right over the drinker, of course! Fortunately, the horses are out on the back field so are not drinking swallow shit!

 

I've left them right up to the wire because I rather expected the pine marten to help himself to them, as he has every other bird around here.

 

Here they are, look. Quite nicely grown on:

 

 

 

 

Scruffy little buggers, aren't they? If they can just hold out another week now, they'll tidy up no end and should be in with a chance.

Anyway, I rung them this afternoon. Got them all safely back in the nest. Now we just watch and wait.

 

Tiny little legs on them. One really has to watch where their toes are going, when one clinches those pliers!

 

 

 

 

 

Can you just make out the ring?

[RAMBLERS 26]

should turn that hat inside out pete

[Outlaw Pete 2,224]

Yeah. No worries, mate. This one was on the cards for days. I just carried the hat down there and back. I was wearing another one.

 

This is one of the aspects of ringing. We tend to use draw string bags. If netting birds, each one, on extraction, is popped into a bag. We take the bird out and process it. Then, that bag is put aside.

 

When doing a nest box, or open nest, we put the brood into one bag. Take them out, one by one. Process them and put them into a second, holding bag. See? Two bags per nest / box.

 

You wouldn't Believe the number of bags we can get through, on one decent day! And, they then all need to be washed and aired before they can be used again. This is to protect against passing parasites and such between the birds. See?

 

God alone knows how many bags my Trainer owns. He's ringing like a bell, most days. It simply couldn't be practical for him to get so many bags laundered, over night. He must have bloody Hundreds! Not cheap either. Probably a couple of quid a throw.

 

Anyway, yeah; Don't let anyone ever kid ye that Ringing's a cheap obsession! But, it's worth every damn penny!

 

[KittleRox 2,147]

aye one of the birds you wouldn't attempt to keep in captivity, good work you're doing there mate, understanding the wild birds helps the birdkeeping folks

[fireman 10,932]

To tell you the truth i hated the thought of wild birds being rung before OP started posting about it,i've had birds hung up in my aviaries by their rings and that caused fatal woundings but now i've been educated and can see for myself these rings you use OP are so much different than the sodding things we have to put on our birds so my mind has been changed as it goes and i look forward to what's coming next from each OP post.Another cracking post OP .

[Outlaw Pete 2,224]

Just to record, lads; I checked that nest this evening. Empty

 

No words can describe or explain the cold fire that now rages within me.