Tony was desperate to catch house martins before they migrate for the winter and only had one volunteer when he needed two. So Anne stepped into the breech and participated in her first bird ringing session ever!
This involved placing a fine mesh net in front of their nests under the eaves at twilight when they had just gone to bed for the night and making a racket. The racket frightened them out of their nests and into the nets. So Anne held one of the poles, Henning Ettrup the other while Tony got the birds out of the net.
That was the easy bit and the quick bit. Afterwards the birds were ringed and measured and Tony was trying to get blood samples; not easy with a bird which weighs on average 18 grams. In the end over 30 birds were ringed and we didn’t get back home until well after midnight!
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