Blackcaps are the model of discretion

I RINGED four blackcaps in the last month. What’s so remarkable about that you may ask; blackcaps are common birds nowadays.

Twenty-five years ago, however, catching a blackcap was a rare event.

Once, as a trainee ringer, I got to handle one. My hands shook with excitement and the bird escaped before I had put the ring on. My trainer was not amused at the fumbling messer who had let a celebrity bird go unringed. That I might never catch one again was a reasonable supposition in those days.