We had an absolute treat tonight as we ringed the most stunning male Whinchat I have ever seen.

Stunning session monitoring Tree Sparrow survival for BTO RAS Project. We were at the site marked red. We recaptured Tree Sparrows that we have ringed as nestlings at many sites up to 9km away across the Downs. There were 60 Tree Sparrows present and we ringed and retrapped 51!

The most momentous day of the year for me is always when I see the first Tree Sparrow eggs of the year. Tonight I found 11 nests with eggs at the one site, with four of them incubating. That's a great start🤞.

Yesterday's ringing site has something special about it because it is our best site for bird longevity. There were c100 Yellowhammers present. Old retrapped birds included one at 5yrs old, three at 4yrs old and two at 2yrs old. Also, a Blue Tit at 4yrs old and two at 3yrs old.

The Blue Tits where I work are up and running. The nest box is right under an oak tree so they tend to be pretty successful. Even though I do some pretty adventurous things around the world, I never forget to enjoy our 'normal things' at home.

We ringed our first nestlings of the year today. I love the eye colour of baby Rooks!

There is no let up: I gave a talk on farmland birds to a local gardening group last night. With the help of a farmer, I put up 27 nest boxes for Tree Sparrows this evening - that's 50 put up on this farm in the past month.

Rob is new to the project and doing a great job👏.

Tree Sparrows do not winter at this site. They have just arrived back, so I have started feeding them to give them the best chances of breeding successfully. They have already started cleaning their nests. Exciting times🤞

Black-throated Green Warbler in Yucatan last week. They eluded me in Canada 20 years ago. We ringed a few and saw several more in Yucatan. Real stunners!

Brilliant morning in the Kennet Valley. 146 birds ringed of 22 species. It was all about Redpolls with 80 Lesser Redpolls ringed and 2 that have been ringed elsewhere. A Common Redpoll was our first for 5 years, hopefully these pics give a nice comparison of Common v Lesser.

A great way to look for scorpions is to use UV light because they glow in the light. This Bark Scorpion was found by Jason Thompson.

We saw a few snakes during our two weeks in Yucatan, but most were just fleeting glimpses. We think this is a Blunt-headed Tree Snake, if correct, this is a rear-fanged mildly venomous snake.

A male Green-breasted Mango turned up yesterday. It is quite a big hummingbird, weighing 6.5 grammes.

Last morning of ringing birds in Yucatan. It's 530am and I have already walked 10,000 steps/8km. It was well worth it with 2 Pauraques ringed and I saw a Grey Fox and a Southern Spotted Skunk.

Star bird of the expedition is this incredible Lesser Roadrunner. There was not a Coyote in sight though! It is the first to be ringed at Komchen in Yucatan, Mexico. Meep meep! #birdringing #birdbanding

This Canivets Emerald (hummingbird) is the smallest bird I have ever ringed. It weighs just 2.44g - the same weight as the top of a coke bottle! Fitting the ring takes precision and care. I love watching 'hummers' on release, the speed of their wing beats is incredible.

The Pauraque is a very common member of the Nightjar family found throughout central/south America. We ringed this one tonight, a great addition to the ringing totals.