I arranged to visit the hotel with the owners, who had already completed the paperwork. The ‘coffee shop’ turned out to be a ‘tropical atrium’ five storeys high, with swimming pool and plantings of palms, bananas and other trees up to 15m high – and a temperature of 18oC!
The bird was singing lustly whilst mist net and spring traps were set and after nearly three hours it was captured in a spring trap, ringed and released outside into a decidedly chilly 4oC. The bird had been there for several months since roof work had been done but had recently been disturbing functions with its singing as well as being percieved as a health hazard. The exercise resulted in a generous donation to the Bird Atlas appeal - and copious coffee and pastries were supplied.
Posted on behalf of Dave Harris with use of his photos.
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Not wishing to be funny, but it strikes me that there is a fair bit of triumphalism in this post about eradicating the hotel of its Robin pest; "..a tropical atrium..., temperatures of 18C., ...released outside into a decidedly chilly 4C."
ReplyDeleteI hope that the welfare of the bird was "put first" when it was being plunged into an environment more than 10 degrees C colder than it had become accomstomed to after "The bird had been there for several months...".
Mike