Last ringing session before I leave

Yesterday I joined Steve and Rachel with Chris and Bethan on Arthurs heath. The earliest start of the year so far (meeting there at 5.30) allowed us to enjoy the full Dawn Chorus as we were setting nets. I helped Steve set four nets, clearing the rides of gorse, brambles and willow branches which had sprouted since last year. It always takes ages to set the nets, but Steve has promised that when I get back he'll do some actual net-setting training with me to work towards my C-permit. The first net round was pretty good with about 12 birds, and it was lovely to catch the first Willow-Chiffs of the year. Having not handled any warblers over the winter, I needed some help remembering the aging processes, but after a while I think I got the hang of it again. I found myself using the Svensson Guide quite a lot, as this will be my guide when I get my C-permit and am working in the field (It is also one of the books I plan on reading while in Sweden!)
About half way through the session Steve and Chris came back from extracting and Chris handed me a bag and said "Don't let it go". I had no idea what it was but Steve didn't think I'd ringed one before. I pulled out a large-ish warbler type bird... Rachel asked me to describe it so I started saying it had a pale, white-ish belly and throat, and was grey-ish brown on the top, but other than that, no distinguishing features... making it a Garden Warbler! We caught one last year on Anglesey but I didn't ring it, so yet another ringing tick for my list! They are really big compared to other warblers, so hopefully I will remember this next time!
It was interesting seeing the different stages of breeding between the birds - we had a few brood patches present on females and many males with a cloacal protuberance, so soon the heath will be full of baby birds!
After the first couple of net rounds, the numbers dropped to just a handful each and as I was going straight to an Agility show afterwards, we decided to call it a day around 9am. I helped take down the nets I'd set with Steve and as we got to the last net, we found Chris and Bethan extracting from it - typically, we caught an extra 6 birds as we were taking down.
Overall we caught 41 birds:
Chiff Chaff - 9
Willow Warbler - 8
Dunnock - 6
Blue Tit - 3
Wren - 3
Goldcrest - 3
Bullfinch - 2
Redpoll - 2
And singles of Great Tit, Garden Warbler, Blackbird, Robin and Long Tailed Tit.

A lovely morning in the sun was a good send off from Wales... hopefully I'll add to my totals in Sweden and come back a bit closer to that elusive C-permit!