I went out on a ringing session this afternoon with Dr Ian. It was quite successful and rewarding. lessons were learned and birds were caught. In fact a total of 16 in all. These included Wren, Greenfinch, Robin (adult and juvenile), Chiffchafff, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Song Thrush, Dunnock and the highlight for me today a juvenile Long Tailed Tit.

If you look very closely at the Juvenile Dunnock here you may notice that it has a pink fleshy end to the inside of the beak. This is called a gape and is soft in nestlings, once they have left the nest this gradually decreases but at first the fact that it is a newly fledged bird can be told by the presence of the "gape". In Dunnocks I noticed today that the gape is pink which is unusual because most birds have a yellow gape. 

Referring back to the Hoverfly above. This is the Bumblebee hoverfly, a first for me and although I did not have the correct lens with me I did manage to get a reasonable record shot for my Devon Hoverfly Galleries click here to view. The hoverfly pictured is the yellow "plumata" form and I also saw and photographed the nominate Brown tailed form but not  a good enough shot to post here.  It really was a good little spot for insects and as well as those already mentioned I saw a Large Skipper Butterfly as well as a couple of unidentified Dragonflies.