WWRG Maintenance Weekend

A couple of weekends ago I joined the Wash Wader Ringing Group at their base in Norfolk for the annual maintenance weekend. This is the weekend of the year where group members get together to mend any broken pieces of equipment and undertake any necessary maintenance on the base.

The weekend started in a gentle fashion, with just six of us at the house on Friday evening having a leisurely dinner and an early night. On Saturday a few more joined the party and the work started in earnest. I spent the weekend painting the kitchen a lovely shade of yellow (!), checking the connections on the dropper cables and mending nets. Other tasks undertaken during the weekend included cutting hedges, mowing lawns, creosoting the shed, moving equipment from a store to the house, fixing shower heads and so on. By the end of the weekend, a very large hole had been made in a very long list of jobs; the house and the equipment are now ship shape and ready for the summer trips to come.

 

Health and safety in action!

How many people does it take to
figure out how to mend a net?

It is not usual to ring anything during the maintenance weekend, so it was a very nice surprise when we were told that the three kestrel chicks in the box in the loft were ready to ring and I was lucky enough to ring one of them. 

 

Ringing a kestrel chick

Kestrel chick

As always, it was a pleasure to spend the weekend in such good company. Hard work never seems so much of a chore when undertaken with friends!