There have been many funny things happen to me over the thirty years I've been ringing birds. One incident was when I went to Gibralter Point before it became a ringing site in its own right.

I had booked in for two weeks and the day after I had arrived a bird ringing course had been scheduled. At the time I hadn't known that all these people would be there. So for the first week I kept out of their way as much as possible.

On the course was an elderly lady who had been injured in what I seem to remember was a car accident and was there to recuperate. During the first week it became evident from the evening discussions that she didn't know a great deal about birds but was just interested. It also became obvious that she was not seeing a great deal either and I felt rather sorry for her.

At the end of the course she was staying on for an extra day. This left she and I the only people staying so I asked her if she would like to accompany me on a short ringing trip near the reserve, to which she agreed. We set off and almost immediately I saw a wryneck on the path in front of us - a new bird for me. I pointed it out to her but she didn't see it.

Gibralter Point if you don't know it is a big place with a lot of sea buckthorn about. I again saw the wryneck on the ground in front of us. Again she failed to see it, and my sympathy was beginning to wane. This refinding and not seeing repeated a couple of times more. Pretty soon I realised I was wasting my time so to get a break I put up a small single panel net in the hope of catching a dunnock or a linnet. Within one minute of putting up the net the wryneck reappeared and obligingly went straight into the net. The lady turned to me and said ''It's amazing how you experts know where to set your net'. 'She didn't know how inexpert I was and I was more amazed than she was.





UK Safari Bird Section