Ringing process

That is how I look like when ringing "my" beloved Oystercatchers. The bird that was caught is placed in a very handy plastic tube (designed by the Dutch I acknowledge!), which makes it easy to weigh it, to put both the steel life-long and the plastic ring(s), and to measure all what has to be measured, except that the wing length is the last measurement before the release.

What cannot be clear from this photo, is that I am always talking quietly to the bird, murmuring nicely that it is cute, that there is no harm, that the nest is also safe, and that the rings will make it even more beautiful. Whether the talking or anything else helps, likely the other things than talking, but some Oystercatchers go back into the same trap within7 to 8 minutes after release! Sure then they have just to be released again with a story that they only need to be in the trap once in 5-7 years or even more, and that all the other times we see each other at good distance.

OK for them - certainly better and more safe, - and I can read the rings in the telescope.