This time last year I would have titled this “Ravensroost Pond” or “Ravensroost Meadow Pond” but someone (I haven’t established who yet: the Ravensroost volunteers, the Wildlife Trust staff or contractors) has carried out a phenomenal amount of work at the site. They have removed bunds, moved paths, removed a massive overgrowth of bramble, expanded the main pond, lowered the causeway, removed the spit, and created several additional wet areas adjacent to the pond.
The change is stunning and, I am pretty sure, for the better. However, I am going to have to rethink my net positions to take advantage. Today I used some fairly standard positions – but I think the changes have had an adverse effect on them. Not a complaint, the changes were necessary (and overdue) but an observation, and something that I am happy to sort out, just not at 5:00 in the morning before I have had any coffee and needing to get the nets open anyway.
Bearing in mind the changes mentioned are not reflected on the aerial photograph yet, these were the net positions used today:
I was joined for the morning at 5:30 by Laura and Teresa. We had the nets set by 6:30 and the first birds were caught at 7:00. It was a very slow morning, with just one or two birds caught during most rounds. However, it was a decent variety within the catch: only 16 birds caught but from 10 species. The list for the morning was: Blue Tit 1; Great Tit [1]; Wren (1); Dunnock 2; Robin (1); Blackbird 1; Blackcap [2]; Whitethroat 1; Chiffchaff 1[4]; Willow Warbler 1. Totals: 7 adults ringed from 6 species, 7 juveniles from 3 species and 2 birds retrapped from 2 species.
The Blue Tit had clearly finished her parental duties: her brood patch had just started to feather over and she had started wing moult: seven retained primaries and then one each at stages 1, 2 and 3. The Willow Warbler was also female and, whilst still showing a strongly veined brood patch, had also started wing moult: eight retained primaries and then one each at stages 1 and 2.
We caught our first juvenile Great Tit of the year:
Great Tit, Parus major
In amongst the juvenile Chiffchaff was this one:
Chiffchaff, Phylloscopus collybita
Biometrics, wing structure and wing formula were all 100% f0r Chiffchaff but I cannot say that I have ever seen such muted markings on a recently fledged juvenile.
The place was alive with insects, so it was a little surprising that we didn’t catch more insectivorous birds. I think that this was my favourite insect of the morning though:
Swollen-thighed Beetle, Oedemera nobilis, on Ox-Eye Daisy, Leucanthemum vulgare
There was a lot of birdsong and a few other birds flying around: a solitary Swallow made an appearance over the adjacent meadow. The most interesting interaction of the morning was a Buzzard being mobbed by a solitary Jackdaw until the Buzzard decided it had had enough, executed a pretty acrobatic wheel to get behind the Jackdaw and give it a hard tine until they both disappeared into the wood.
However, the best sighting of the morning belonged to Laura. On her way back from a check on the nets she came across a Grass Snake. Unfortunately, they move very fast and it had disappeared by the time she managed to get the camera app on her phone loaded. Shame!
The weather stayed fine throughout. Forecast showers for 10:00 did not materialise, although we did have a very large, very black, cloud move slowly overhead at about that time, but it did not drop a drop.
We shut the nets after the last round at 11:30, took down and left site by 12:20. A quiet but reasonably satisfying session.
Ringing In The Braydon Forest & Beyond 