Second day of the month and eagerly awaiting the wind to drop to resume ringing activities; in the meantime back to inputting data on the computer.

The fourth day of the month and we finally managed to get some mist nets up. Not many birds caught but it's a start; however a pair of Mallard in the Haven Heligoland Trap provided ringing ticks and wet feet for two of our ringers! A total of 5 Chaffinches were captured including 2 showing good deposits of fat, suggesting migrating birds. Roll on the South-easterlies.

April 5th dawned dry and clear with a light breeze. Nets were erected by 07.30hrs; a steady trickle of birds gave a total of 4 Chiffchaffs, 3 Blackcaps, 2 Willow Warblers and a female Firecrest. Three days of endeavour with the Whoosh net finally resulted in the capture of an adult Rook.

Another chapter in the SBBOT SAGA - and it's applicable as the average age of the ringers was well over 50 years! Ringing was carried out between 07.30hrs and 15.30hrs. Not huge numbers of birds caught but 4 Blackcap, 2 Chiffchaff, 2 Willow Warbler, a Firecrest and the first Common Whitethroat of the year was just rewards for the effort put in by our geriatric crew! (Bob, our visiting ringer, would like to compliment The Red Cow, in Sandwich for the quality of its draught scrumpy!)

The 8th day looked to be a good one for ringing but very few birds were captured. The first push of the Heligoland produced our third Mallard for the year, unfortunately its mate double-backed and escaped. After getting only 8 birds we decided to close the nets at 11.00hrs and go birdwatching offsite to seek some woodland species (which was sucessful; 2 lifer's for one of our group!)

Another exciting day in the life of an observatory ringer. Nearly a thousand foot of net was erected and this expanse resulted in the capture of only 11 new birds! Although the totals included singles of Chiffchaff, Blackcap and Reed Bunting the most exciting bird of the day was a Magpie! This puts it all into context - disgruntled of Sandwich.

The mist nets went up early on Sunday 11th but the increasing wind meant they came down again by 10.30 am, resulting in a single Chiffchaff ringed and a retrapped Reed Bunting.

Although the sun shone Tuesday 13th the wind had not abated so nets remained in their bags, a push of the Heligoland produced an unringed Wren.

Not much of note for the remainder of the week until Saturday 17th when a Firecrest was captured. The following day numbers increased slightly - 2 Blackcaps, and singles of Willow Warbler, Wren, Whitethroat, 3 Goldfinches and 5 Song Thrushes.

Monday 19th was terrible - not a single bird captured! Slight improvement on Tuesday and Wednesday but nothing of note until Friday with a Stock Dove in the Heligoland Trap. The Wildlife Explorers group met on Saturday fortunately 18 new birds were ringed and the children were very impressed with a male Sparrowhawk . Other species also ringed were: Great Spotted Woodpecker, 4 Song Thrushes, 3 Goldfinches, Reed Bunting, 2 Willow Warblers, 2 Blackcaps and 4 Chiffchaffs.

Sunday 25th appeared to be a quiet capture day though a Garden Warbler made an early morning appearance, we struggled to get 12 new birds. Towards the end of the session a Magpie was extracted from the mist nets but the highlight came with 2 male Cuckoos! It was interesting to compare the colouration as one bird was significantly paler and had a duller eye from the other male. After consideration both birds were aged code 5 (birds hatched in the previous year), the dark male had retained a secondary feather and corresponding greater covert

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Highlights of Monday 26th was our first Sedge Warbler and Wheatear for the season. Captures are still low so on Tuesday whilst two ringers went to the Beach to catch 3 more Wheatears, I stayed behind to "man" the nets. Keeping the nets open paid off as one round produced an aged 5 male Bullfinch, unfortunately my camera battery ran out so no photo! Later on I extracted a male Yellowhammer (aged 5) from the top net panel, a ringing tick for me and our first capture of this species since 2003. Enjoy the picture and my thanks to all those photographers with fully charged batteries!

The last two days of the month produced 15 captures comprising of Blackcap, Willow Warbler, Greenfinch, Goldfinch, Reed Bunting, Collared Dove and Wood Pigeon.