Tent-roosting Swallows

Instead of using our large wooden roosting box, last night we used a pop-up tent to roost some Swallows caught in the reedbed at Gunwalloe. The video below shows them being released at dawn, with all birds successfully dry and safe in the roomy tent.

Although the birds came in to roost very late, of the 350 birds present we caught 76, including a recapture of a bird we ringed in the Gunwalloe roost in July 2014 and also a bird ringed on the Isles of Scilly on 20th August, so heading completely the wrong way in autumn! What was equally surprising was that 24 out of the 76 birds caught were adults (32%), compared to 27 out of 284 (10%) ringed at roost earlier this year.