I had a disappointing winter as my normally well-blessed-with-Bramblings garden produced only one sighting, and therefore very little focus on ringing occurred. However, when a female Sparrowhawk was making a nuisance of herself on the 7th March, I intervened to rescue a terrified Chaffinch, which was actually safe in the collecting box. It was an adult male, and I confess that I presume the Chaffinches are just local residents, so I rarely ring any, and was about to release it. However, this bird had a ring on the left leg, unusual for a local bird.
In fact, it was already ringed with a Brussels scheme number. It has taken until today for the ringing details to reach me, but it was ringed at Ursel, which is halfway between Bruges and Ghent, as a first winter bird on 26.11.2016. So 3 years 3 months and 485kms NW later, I was about to ignore it.
So I may start ringing Chaffinches...…...
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