Bird Ringing - Notes from the Field
Our Bird Ringing Season 2018 was very international, inter-continental and Adventurous! We hosted Participants of 7 Nations and three continents. It was a perfect opportunity to compare bird mistnetting and net extraction methods as well as systems of training prospective Ringers in different countries.
British Participants are particularly excited about totally HANDS-ON, practical formula of the camp. In Britain, Trainees learn to handle the birds at the end of their education process and usually aren't allowed to untangle birds in any time before. That's because the bird extraction is the most difficult part of the training. Whereas in Poland bird extraction is the first thing you learn. That's because if you want to ring the bird, you have to untangle it from the net first.
Some of us have spent entire season at the Ringing Station and had an unique opportunity to experience the intricate show of ecosystem dynamics. We've witnessed changes in caught bird species composition, responding to changes in the weather and sunlight as well as the colorful life cycle of surrounding Vegetation, developing and ageing with time.
We hope that this process will leave a trace in our Volunteers and Friends' minds and they will pas the story forward in their homes, far, far away from here. It's difficult to describe how it feels to be totally immersed in this ecosystem and participate in all those changes. You just have to experience it yourself.
