Birds are caught as they fly between the feeding tables. They crash into the net and become tangled up and quite quickly give up struggling. In the photograph below you can see a female Great Spotted Woodpecker being carefully removed from the net by the ringer. 

The woodpecker was taken into the building and, as you can see in the series of photos below, was weighed, measured, sexed and had a ring put onto it's leg. None of this harms the bird if carried out by a qualified ringer. The ring is the equivalent to a human wearing a wrist watch.  You can just see the ring on the next photo, close to the birds body. Each ring has a unique number to identify the bird if it is caught again, or unfortunately picked up dead. Members of the public can help, by making a note of the ring number and sending it off to the BTO, along with the date the bird was found, it's location and the circumstances (e.g. was it alive or dead, how it died etc.). 

The ringer records all the details in his log book, and periodically he gives the details to the BTO. This allows the BTO to monitor local bird populations and movements. In the case of woodpeckers, this is usually not very far, but some species travel thousands of miles every year, and this kind of data is invaluable for their conservation.

The ring is put on the birds leg using pliers which are specially designed so as not to harm the bird. Around 800,000 birds are ringed in Britain each year, by approximately 2000 qualified ringers, the vast majority of whom are volunteers.



Tits were amongst the most numerous of the species we caught. Below is a Great Tit.



Blue Tits were much more aggressive than the Great Tits, and were constantly pecking at the ringers fingers. You can really see the size difference between Great Tit and Blue Tit!

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However, as the picture below shows, even Blue Tits were really quite relaxed. This bird lay on its back in my 11 year old sons hand, for a good two minutes before eventually flying away.

We went to a second ringing session on 19th January 2003, which if anything was even better. The stunning Goldfinch below was a star catch, but we also had Robin, Long-tailed Tits and a Moorhen.

Most birds give up struggling very quickly once they are in the net, like the Long-tailed Tit below. Since this species travels around in small parties, once you catch one, you often catch the lot, and on this day, we had 10 Long-tailed Tits in the net at the same time! 

Despite the fearsome looking claws and beak, the Moorhen was quite gentle (not a bit like the Blue Tit!). The large feet are to allow the bird to walk easily across boggy areas