Ringing In The Braydon Forest & Beyond

After moving our Blakehill session to this morning, because of the wind on Wednesday, we were pleased to find that the day was wind free. It was foggy for the first couple of hours, but flat calm all morning. I had set up a feeding station on Thursday afternoon, to see what impact that might have. Not enough time for it to have attracted in a lot of birds but we did take out half of our catch from the nets adjacent to that area. I was joined by Miranda and David for the morning, so we didn’t set too many nets:

For some reason, it took us an age to get the nets set up and open. It started slowly and we didn’t catch our first birds until 8:45. As is frequently the case, first bird out of the net was a Robin, followed closely by three Blue Tits.

The second round produced 11 birds: four each of Blue and Great Tits, and one each of Goldcrest, Robin and Long-tailed Tit. The Long-tailed Tit was a nice portent of things to come. We had a couple of birds in each round and then, at 10:45, we caught another seven Long-tailed Tits and, immediately having processed them, we processed another 11.

One of the outstanding birds in that catch was Long-tailed Tit PBK568. This bird was ringed at this site in October 2022. It was unaged at the time, but it is at least four-and-a-half years old. The average age is two years, the oldest is over eight years.

The list for the morning was: Blue Tit 7(2); Great Tit 2(2); Long-tailed Tit 16(3); Wren 1; Robin 2(1); Song Thrush 1; Blackbird 1; Goldcrest 1. Totals: 31 birds ringed from 8 species and 8 birds retrapped from 4 species, making 39 birds processed from 8 species.

We were packed away and off site by soon after midday! A lovely way to start my 72^nd birthday!

The following article is by my ringing trainee Ellie.

Having visited Skokholm Island Bird Observatory briefly last year and had a fantastic time, I was delighted to accept a long-term volunteering position there for three months this spring. This role involved carrying out regular censusing and seabird productivity monitoring, as well as ringing some of the incredible birds found on Skokholm, which made the maintenance work and daily emptying the compost toilets feel more than worth it!

One of the main duties of the observatory is to monitor migrants, and ringing is carried out daily where weather allows. Heligoland traps are the primary catching method used for this since they can be used in more weather conditions than mist nets and require no set up. Early spring saw the arrival of lots of Phylloscs, providing ample opportunity to learn to age Chiffchaffs based on feather condition and to compare their identifying features such as primary projection against that of Willow Warblers. Another early migrant to arrive were the Swallows and whilst we didn’t catch many of these in the traps, we regularly had to free them from buildings where they were prospecting for nest sites, and ringed or processed them before releasing. I had the privilege of watching the progression of a swallow nest belonging to returning breeders outside my bedroom window, the cheeping of the chicks providing an early morning alarm clock. Late in spring there was regular passage of Blackcap and Whitethroat, along with a few Grasshopper Warblers and Spotted Flycatchers and the arrival of Sedge Warblers, some of which breed on the island.

While the Heligoland traps did a fantastic job of catching common migrants, they also surprised us with some unexpected species including Herring and Lesser Black-Backed Gulls, Skylark, Merlin, Oystercatcher, Moorhen, Mallard, and the first Nightjar to be ringed on the island since 1967. They also provided excitement when, whilst we were off the island doing a whole-island seabird count by boat, two Raven fledglings wandered into one of the traps and were caught upon our return. This meant that three of the island’s four resident Ravens were now ringed and provided a rare chance to ring full-grown Ravens away from a nest site. Since Heligoland traps are very rarely used on public nature reserves on the mainland, volunteering at an island bird observatory proved a fantastic opportunity to practice pushing them for the first time.

Another new catching method that I got to witness was leg-noosing. Being fortunate enough to have one of the very few people licensed to do this come and stay on the island we got to learn how this method can be used to catch adult Great Black-backed Gulls. This involved laying a noose around the nest of a gull and firing a remote trigger to tighten a noose around the birds legs when it comes in to land. The gull is then ringed or processed as efficiently as possible to be allowed to return to incubating its eggs. This was fascinating to watch and a good chance to learn to close metal and Darvic rings much larger those you
would use in normal mist netting. The Great Black-Backed Gulls often get resighted away from the island over winter. Once the eggs from these nests had hatched later in the season we went around hand catching the chicks and colour-ringing these so that multiple generations of each family group can be studied. A couple of weeks into our time on the island the first rays of spring sunshine welcomed in the beginning of the seabird monitoring season, and it quickly became obvious why Skokholm is nicknamed Dream Island. With one of the densest Manx Shearwater colonies in the world and more breeding European Storm-petrels than the rest of England and Wales combined, the island proved an incredible place to learn to monitor seabirds.

Survival of Manx Shearwaters on Skokholm is mainly monitored through regular ringing along a set transect at night time. This is an experience quite unlike any other, heading out into the dark, serenaded on busy nights by an almost deafening cacophony of eerie Manx Shearwater calls, and hand netting birds sat on the ground seemingly unbothered by human presence. This year we were regularly catching birds known from their ring sequences to be over 10 years old, but known ages of birds should increase over time as ringing has only been carried out consistently on the island since 2013 and individuals have been known to live for over 50 years. Remains found on census of Shearwaters predated by Great Black-backed Gulls were also checked for rings, giving valuable data on predation dynamics. In addition to the night time ringing of Shearwaters, there was also the opportunity to help with productivity monitoring in the study plots. The study burrows are natural nest chambers with a paving slab covering an access hole in the roof of the burrow, they are all
numbered and visited each year as part of a long-term study. The monitoring involved ringing or recording the ring number of both adult birds incubating in each burrow and noting which pairs had an egg. Later in the spring and summer the chicks are ringed with the number of chicks hatched and then successful fledglings being recorded and used to calculate productivity. The experience was often slightly nail-biting, carefully manoeuvring around the fragile ground and putting our arms down burrows, seeing if our hands met with a tail or a sharp hooked beak. However, it was incredible to handle such charismatic birds
and learn about the breeding history of ringed birds, with many having bred in the same burrows since the plots were established in 2012/13.

This photo is the final adult Manx Shearwater processed, completing burrow occupancy monitoring in the study plots for the year.

Having spent weeks watching the Razorbill chicks hatch and then grow up from the clifftops, it was exciting when, in June, we were allowed to clamber down into the boulder field and ring some. We practiced closing their difficult triangular-shaped rings in the ringing hut beforehand and after a couple of hours in the colony we had all successfully ringed a few chicks. One particular highlight was a long-term ringer on the island processing an adult which he had ringed as a chick years earlier, surprising since he has only ringed in the boulder field on a couple of occasions. Since Razorbills are faithful to their hatching site it is hoped that our ringed chicks will also be recaught in the coming years.

Another greatly studied species on the island is the Puffin. As well as monitoring burrow occupancy and productivity through watching the comings and goings at study burrows, adult survival is monitored through colour-ring resighting. Each day the puffins were watched for two hours and any with colour rings photographed and added to the resightings spreadsheet. This was partiularly crucial as this last winter saw storm after storm in the Atlantic with thousands of puffins washed up dead around the coastlines of Europe. By the end of June we had resighted just over 70% of the total number of birds known to be alive last year, hopefully this was increased further by our successors before the Puffins all headed off into the Atlantic after the breeding season. After monitoring from a research hide, it was nice to get some hands-on experience furtling and ringing chicks, and mist netting and colour ringing adults. Extracting adult Puffins from mist nets makes Blue Tits feel like angels but it was good practice extracting large birds and fantastic to think they may be resighted for many years to come and add to our understanding of Puffin ecology.

Being relatively new to bird ringing my time volunteering on Skokholm taught me a lot and I learnt skills I can apply both to general birding and my future ringing career. The experience was incredible and confirmed to me that I would love to work in Ornithology.

Footnote from me: I have been lucky enough to spend two sessions on Skokholm myself. Firstly as a trainee and secondly as a trainer. They were two of the most exciting and exhilarating times of my ringing life. As a trainee I got to ring Manx Shearwater, as did Ellie, and these two beauties:

I cannot wait to go back!

We were due to head to Blakehill Farm, but the forecast was for it to be far too windy. Instead I decided to have a session in Webb’s Wood. I went over on Tuesday afternoon to check it out and set up the winter feeding station, only to find that there was a new padlock on the gate, which needed a key. There is a story here. Last winter the gate, essentially a thin trunk set on two support poles, one with a hoop through which it passes, the other with a metal slot through which a metal slide passes through which has a hole for the padlock. All well and good, and all Forestry England padlocks in our local area use the same key.

Unfortunately, the locking support strut broke at the bottom and it became awkward fitting it all back together, and it wasn’t exactly secure. I notified FE. Doubly unfortunately, their contractor who does these repairs for them was firstly, ill for a long time and then his vehicle broke down. The gate got worse and somebody cleared it out of the way – because they wanted access. They wanted access to tip the most hideous amount of waste material a long way into the wood. We are talking asbestos and a host of chemicals, alongside a mountain of building waste. I let FE know and they arranged to get it removed.

These people are not only criminal, but incredibly stupid as well: documentation was recovered from the waste and the culprits found. Because of the nature of the waste, it had to be removed by specialist waste handlers, and that took a while. In the interim the gate system was completely rebuilt and the old padlock was working fine. However, so the waste handlers didn’t have to manage a key, FE left the original padlock in place (it is welded to a chain attached to the locking end) and put in a temporary combination padlock. That only caught me out once. Anyway, for the last six months we have been happily using the combination padlock – until I turned up on Tuesday afternoon to find it had gone and been replaced by another padlock: this time one with a Yale type key. So no access. I contacted the beat forester and she was as bemused as I was, as she had no idea it had been replaced. She is going to sort it out and we can go back to using the standard padlock and key. This is a long-winded way of explaining why we ended up at Somerford Common West. I went and set the feeding station up there: I didn’t expect it to have much impact – and I was right.

I was joined by Laura and Miranda for the morning. We arrived on site at 7:00 and set our usual nets. Everything was open by 7:45, before any sign of movement from the birds. It was very quiet until I put a few lures on – but they were pretty much the only bird song. It was very slow. Unfortunately, the wind got up very quickly and it was bitterly cold as well. So at 10:00 we decided to pack up and get home in time for elevenses.

The nicest thing about the catch was five of these:

The list for the morning was: Blue Tit 3(1); Great Tit 2(1); Coal Tit 1; Robin 1; Goldcrest 5. Totals: 12 birds ringed from 5 species and 2 birds retrapped from 2 species, making 14 birds processed from 5 species.

Not our worst catch by any stretch, and always good when Goldcrest outnumbers either of the common Tit species. The wind is looking better for Saturday, so we will try Blakehill again. I set up a feeding station there Thursday afternoon and, whilst doing so, noted good sized flocks of Starling and Redwing around, so fingers crossed!

After Wednesday’s outing to Red Lodge and its reasonable return, and feeling rather unwell, I suggested that we have garden sessions on Thursday, and put off our Blakehill session to Saturday. The wind forecast was the same for both days, so it seemed like a reasonable swap, and gave me a bit of time to feel better.

Miranda was going to have to leave early from Thursday’s session, as she had to get to a previously arranged appointment, so she didn’t set up in her garden. Laura, abetted by Adam and Ellie, ran a session, as did Steph in her back garden. Both of them live just over the border in Gloucestershire: Preston and Down Ampney respectively. I abandoned my effort, as I still felt unwell, but set my garden nets Thursday evening to open them Friday morning.

Then Laura, Adam, David and I met up for our scheduled session on the Blakehill Farm plateau on Saturday. This was my big mistake: the weather on Thursday was flat calm and would have been perfect for the plateau. The forecast for Saturday was essentially the same but, unfortunately, it got windy quickly. As it was, I still felt lousy, and also needed to leave early to take my wife for a hospital appointment, so I just ended up leaving the equipment needed with the team, set up the ringing station and left off. Laura ran the session. They had to pack up at 10:15 because of the wind and a near complete lack of birds.

To the sessions. Steph had a really decent time of it, catching 26 House Sparrows: our biggest ever single session catch of this species! Her catch list was: Blue Tit 11(2); Great Tit 1; Dunnock 1; Robin 1; House Sparrow 26. Totals: 40 birds ringed from 5 species and 2 birds retrapped from 1 species, making 42 birds processed from 5 species.

Laura, helped by Adam and Ellie, had a smaller haul but more variety: Green Woodpecker 1; Magpie 1; Blue Tit 11(2); Great Tit 1(1); Long-tailed Tit 1; Dunnock 3; Robin (1); Blackbird 4; Goldfinch 1. Totals: 23 birds ringed from 8 species and 4 birds retrapped from 3 species, making 27 birds processed from 9 species.

I am jealous of the Green Woodpecker catch. Laura has now caught two in her garden since she got her C-permit earlier this year. I have never caught one in 14 years of ringing in my garden:

Having set my nets the evening before, and topped up the seed feeders, fat balls and coconut shell with fat and peanuts; I had them open just as it started to get light. I put out a couple of trays of mealworms and sat and waited. Almost straight away I caught a couple of Starling, a Dunnock and a Goldfinch. Then nothing until 9:00 when I caught two more Goldfinch, two Blue Tits, one at 10:10, the other at 10:40 and, just as I finished processing that last Blue Tit, a retrapped House Sparrow. Despite leaving the nets open until dusk, with lures for Greenfinch and Goldfinch playing, not another bird caught. Thank goodness I was at home, with plenty of food and drink and alternative “entertainments”: like net mending! Oh! Deep Joy!

To Saturday, I felt bad for the team: Blue Tit 3; Great Tit 3(1); Wren 1; Dunnock 1; Redwing 1; Blackbird 2; Goldfinch 2. Totals: 13 birds ringed from 7 species and 1 bird retrapped, making 14 birds processed from 7 species.

My mistake: we should have done Blakehill Farm plateau on Thursday. Not really my mistake but I always feel somewhat guilty when the weather forecast turns out to be wrong! In the event we ended up with 84 birds ringed from 13 species and 8 birds retrapped from 4 species, making 92 birds processed from 13 species. It would have made a nice haul for a single session!!!

An absolutely cracking month, with some great catches and a few milestones surpassed. It is our largest ever October catch – we got more sessions in, but the overall result is excellent. As ever, Jonny is the largest contributor, but his sites seem to be quite remarkable: averaging 86 birds per session but with three catches of over 100 birds: the biggest being 156 on a farmland site near East Tytherton. Mind, I was quite pleased with a 122 bird catch at Somerford Common, my team’s best Braydon woodlands catch outside of the bird feeding station months.

The highlights from this month have to be:

House Sparrow: at 26 ringed in a single session, at Steph’s garden, that is our largest ever catch since the group came into its current structure.  Mind, it beat the second best by three birds – 23 in Rosie’s garden back in 2023, but that was at Mitcheldean on the edge of the Forest of Dean, so doesn’t count in  our Wiltshire cohort. That said, Steph’s garden is in Down Ampney, just over the border into Gloucestershire.  That said, the king of the House Sparrow catches is Andy. Since he started ringing in his garden in 2016 he has ringed 671 and retrapped 91 of them: an average of 61 ringed every year!  All trapped in and around his garden – not pulli ringed in nest boxes.

The only retrapped House Sparrow of the month, happened to be in my garden on Thursday, 29^th.

Pied Wagtail: our biggest ever catch all in a single roost session at Ravensroost Meadow ponds. The biggest previous catch was just nine birds in 2013 at Calne Conigre Sewage Works and the same for Jonny at a Sutton Benger site in November of last year.

It was an evening roost. The bottom photo makes it look pitch black, but we stopped whilst there was still enough light for the birds to fly off safely.

Redwing: although nowhere near our best ever October catch, which was 129 in October 2024, we only caught three last October, so it is a big improvement on that.  It is our third best October, the second best being 81 in 2021. Indicative of a potentially cold winter?

Siskin: we don’t often catch them in this month. In fact, we have only caught them in October in two sites: Lower Moor Farm and the aforementioned Sutton Benger site. Two were in Lower Moor Farm on the same day in October 2019, Jonny caught his October 2024 and we caught only the fourth for the month at Lower Moor Farm on the 8^th of the month:

Laura had a couple of nice catches: her second garden Magpie and Green Woodpecker of the year. I am certainly jealous of her Green Woodpeckers, having never caught one in my garden. She has caught as many Magpies in her garden in three months as I have in 14 years!

Anyway, very satisfying, hoping November will be every bit as good.

A wind shortened session this morning. I was joined by Miranda, Laura, Steph, Ellie and Adam. Not forgetting Steph’s daughter Bea: full of energy, never stops smiling and keeps everyone entertained. It is a good job that I had this good team out today: predominantly female, three C-permit holders and Ellie, who will be put forward for her C-permit early next year, and Adam who will be put forward next year, as soon as he hits his 16th birthday.

We met at 6:30 and got on with setting up. The best thing about that team, I had so little sleep last night and was feeling pretty lousy, if I hadn’t had such a good team out, I would have cancelled. Instead, I delivered the equipment, set up the ringing station, whilst they did all the hard work of erecting the nets. I then went off home to get some rest and try and dial down the symptoms, leaving the team to get on with managing the session, knowing that they would be fine.

The first round was a good start: 24 birds about 20 minutes after the nets were opened. Unfortunately, that was as good as it got, and the rest of the morning was just three or four birds each time. We ended up on 41 birds, of which 31 were Blue or Great Tits. This is somewhat surprising, as I only set up our two feeding stations there late yesterday afternoon, and they certainly hadn’t taken advantage of them. Presumably just early feeding flocks gathered, as it also included six Long-tailed Tits!

I returned to the team at 10:30, by which time the wind was really getting up. We shut the nets along the main path first: they were the most exposed and they were now catching was leaves. That was then followed by shutting the rest of the nets and taking down.

The list for the session was: Blue Tit 13(2); Great Tit 11(5); Long-tailed Tit 5(1); Robin 1(2); Goldcrest 1. Totals: 31 birds ringed from 5 species and 10 birds retrapped from 4 species, making 41 birds processed from 5 species.

We did have one bird worth singling out for mentioning. It was a Great Tit:

It rather looks as if it has avian pox. This disease arrived in the UK, in the south-east, in about 2005, and spread very rapidly westwards and northwards. It isn’t restricted to Great Tits, but they do seem to suffer from it more than most other species. This is the first Great Tit I have seen suffering from this for a very long time – probably a decade or more.

One of the benefits of ringing birds is that you can get to follow what happens with resident species. I am pretty confident that birds can recover from avian pox. How do I know? I didn’t used to ring birds suffering from disease. One Great Tit that I ringed in Ravensroost Wood we retrapped later, and it had developed the lesions and growths associated with avian pox. A few years later we caught it again: completely clean of any growths but there was residual scarring. It had survived the disease and recovered.

Anyway, with the team being extremely efficient, we were packed away and off site by just past 11:10.

A couple of final points: firstly, when I went to set up the feeders on Tuesday afternoon I was trying to turn into the site. Unfortunately, a dog walker has parked her car right across the entrance. What is it about dog walkers that makes them think that rules don’t apply to them? She parked adjacent to this sign:

I hit my horn once and she went ballistic. By the time that woman moved her car there were a dozen cars queued up behind me: totally inconvenienced because of her ignorance (I bet most were blaming me though). It is like the nature reserves with signs saying “Please keep your dog on a lead” and “Please pick up after your dog”. They have that latter sign at the Forestry England sites, and dog walkers take as much notice of those as they do on nature reserves.

The second point that came up: soon after I got back at 10:30 we heard the hunting horns from the Vale of the White Horse Hunt. Next thing there were hounds running all over the B4696 road that runs from Wootton Bassett to Ashton Keynes. The only good thing I will say about them: two of the riders used their horses to act as a barrier to the entrance so they did not let the hounds into Red Lodge – but that was also why they were holding up the traffic on the B4696, as they moved them across from White Lodge Farm to Oak Copse and Maplesale Farm (I really must have a chat with the farmers at White Lodge Farm, who seem to be very keen on supporting wildlife, to see if they are trespassing.). Who lays a trail that runs across a busy main road? Did they run the trail past the rural police unit and did the police approve it? If the police approved it, why weren’t they there to control the traffic? Were they breaking the law? (Of course they were: regularly trespassing on Wiltshire Wildlife Trust nature reserves, as I have mentioned before, having had direct experience of them doing so on two occasions at the Firs. If it applies to Wiltshire Hunt Sabs and monitors, it applies to them as well.)

This year has been pretty weird: some very good catches and some absolutely awful sessions. With the feeding station in place in January and February we had decent catches of 110 (62 ringed 48 retrapped) and 63 in February (24 ringed and 39 retrapped but, outside of that, catches of 13, 12, 9 and 14 have been hugely disappointing. To be fair, we have had the same pattern in all of the Braydon Forest woodland sessions. We had planned to go to Somerford Common on Wednesday but, unfortunately, I had a stinking cold come on Tuesday and it hasn’t fully gone yet. On Tuesday morning I had popped over to Somerford Common and set up a seed feeder and a peanut feeder. Having decided to change Saturday from Ravensroost Wood to Somerford, because the logging work has started, and I wanted somewhere where the bird life is undisturbed, and as Somerford had the feeding station set up, it seemed sensible. On Thursday afternoon I went to check on the feeders. They were both about half empty, so I topped them up. Arriving on site this morning I went to check the feeders: same as Thursday, so I thought that was a good sign, but didn’t expect what actually happened.

I was joined for the session by Laura, Adam and Ellie at 7:00. Laura’s hubby Mark also came along, and did a great job of brush cutting a couple of our somewhat overgrown rides, whilst the rest of the crew got on with setting up the other nets. He doesn’t ring but is very helpful and helped with the nets once he had finished strimming. A little later in the morning we were joined by Laura’s friend, Jo, and her partner. Jo is based in Reading and interested in the possibility of taking up bird ringing.

We set the usual nets and, whilst the others set up the ringing station, I went and set up my lures for the session. I had Redpoll, Siskin and Marsh Tit on three lures and one, having seen that a ringing friend in Suffolk had his first Redwing of the season, I thought I would try a lure for them. I wasn’t confident, as we only caught one Redwing at Somerford Common in the autumn winter period 1st August 2025 to 31st March 2026. To be honest, we only caught nine across all of my sites in that period. So this was pleasing:

It worked! We actually caught three in total: so a third of last winter’s catch already.

As I was putting up the lures near the feeding station the birds started arriving. And then the Blue and Great tits just started piling in. 56 birds in the first round: 32 Blue Tits and 17 Great Tits! I was particularly pleased to catch three more Marsh Tits: one new and two retraps. It is going well again this year.

This was the list for the session: Nuthatch 1(2); Treecreeper 1; Blue Tit 40(20); Great Tit 29(7); Coal Tit (1); Marsh Tit 1(3); Dunnock 1; Robin 4(1); Redwing 3; Goldcrest 4; Chaffinch 2; Redpoll 1. Totals: 87 ringed from 11 species and 34 birds retrapped from 6 species making 121 birds processed from 12 species.

Apart from our first Redwing of the Autumn we also had this:

Our first Lesser Redpoll of this Autumn : species or subspecies? Genetically a subspecies but recording what you find is largely left up to the individual doing the data entry and no enforced uniformity by the powers that be.

So many titmice. Lots of biting and sore fingers. I did feel a little sorry for this Great Tit though:

Another unusual catch was this:

This isn’t the first time I have seen this, but it is the most extensive example I have found. I presume it is a form of melanism.

Anyway, Ellie had to leave at 10:30 for work at lunchtime, Mark and Adam had to leave just after 11:00 as Adam was attending an educational briefing event in Gloucestershire. The wind had got up and, although the sun was nice and warm, the wind, coming from the north, was bitterly cold. With Laura, they rescued the nets along the main path from the brambles, took out as many leaves as they had time to, and took down. Laura and I extracted the last seven birds from the top nets, then closed and emptied those nets and took down, clearing everything away by 12:15.

So, why is this a record session? It is our largest ever catch in Somerford Common. In fact, it is our largest ever catch in any of our Braydon Forest Woodlands. We have had bigger catches: but at Lower Moor Farm or Blakehill Farm, our key Autumn migration sites. Our actual biggest catch was 140 at Ravensroost Meadow Ponds on 2^nd September 2017: unsurprisingly that was much more autumn migration heavy, with loads of warblers, 25 Swallows being the biggest contributor, and a nice haul of 18 Goldfinches.

Anyway, it was a refreshing change from the recent small catches.

Attached to this post is the annual review of the SPRRG 2026 season. It is such a huge improvement on last year. Thanks to Dick for allowing me to publish it on my blog. I had the privilege of stepping in as Group trainer, when the legend that was Nigel Lewis passed, working with the Group during 2024 and 2025 and putting forward Justine Hadfield and Jon Pepper for their A-permits. Jon Keepen will be up for the same next season.

After my last, hugely disappointing, session at the Firs back on the 5th September, with its 10 ringed and three retrapped from just seven species, we revisited with some trepidation. I was joined for the session at 6:45 by David, Laura, Adam and Ellie, and we set the usual nets. The nets were open by 7:45 and we caught our first two birds just as we were finally opening them: one new and one retrapped Robins.

It was a bit of a frustrating session to start with: we would have a few birds and then a long gap before we caught any more. By 10:30 we had caught one less than the 14 we caught last time. All bar two of those were retraps, just so little to ring. We had a chat and decided that, if the next round was as bad as the previous two, we would give it up as a bad job, cut our losses, go home and get warm. Naturally, that meant that the crew came back with 14 birds to process. I say “the crew” because I spent most of the time at the ringing station leaving the others to do all of the work. In fact, they set all of the nets whilst I set up the ringing station and, at the end of the session, they did the taking down while I packed away the ringing station. They also did all of the net rounds and I only joined them for one. Resting my old legs!

The final round, when the crew shut the nets, did produce a final Goldcrest, which I processed. Most unusual for me to process a bird when the team are out. Anyway, the list for the session was: Treecreeper 1; Blue Tit 7; Great Tit 2(5); Coal Tit 1; Long-tailed Tit 2(3); Dunnock (1); Robin 1(3); Blackbird (1); Goldcrest 1(1). Totals: 15 birds ringed from 8 species and 14 birds retrapped from 6 species, making 29 birds processed from 9 species.

It is most unusual for us to have a catch of Blue Tits with none of them being retraps.

Occasionally one will find people complaining that ringing causes the birds stress, make your own minds up:

Ironically, you can no longer make your minds up. Some coward from the ringing community complained about this photo because the bird was being “held on its back”! It wasn’t being held but I have been told by Ringing Licensing management at the BTO that it is “against scheme rules” and that, because it was lying on its back, its wings were being “held” by its own bodyweight – all 7 grams of it. It wasn’t, as my team and the observers at the time and place could tell you, when it was ready it rolled over onto its front and flew off. It’s so easy to make judgemental calls when you weren’t there.

Since I started this blog on WordPress in 2017, the traffic has grown phenomenally, given the size of the area that I cover. Yes, I have produced a lot of posts: 973 to date, which have been read 68,000 times and I have had visitors from 110 countries / self-governing administrative regions. So far this year alone, I have had just over 5,000 visitors to the site, from 75 countries reading 8,000 posts. I have had three complaints about photographs I have published which I think are for spurious reasons. I would love to know who made the complaints: too cowardly to do it in public!

On Wednesday we were planning to provide a session / demonstration for the Wildlife Trust’s Swindon Well-being Group. The wind and rain put paid to that, so I moved it to today. Unfortunately, the Well-being Group couldn’t make that, nor could Miranda and Ellie, who both had other commitments that they couldn’t get out of. That left Laura and myself for the session. We met at 6:45 (an extra 15 minutes in bed! Luxury!) and set the usual nets. we weren’t expecting a huge catch so, in that, we weren’t disappointed. Actually, we had a lovely session. Some nice birds, one special bird (f0r us), and lots of very friendly and interested people stopping by for a chat.

We were never rushed off our feet, just a few birds every round, but it was a good variety, and we had only our third ever Siskin at this site in 12 years of working it. It is also the earliest of the Autumn arrivals at this site, by 13 days. It is our second earliest from all of my sites: the earliest being four ringed at Ravensroost Meadows on the 16^th September 2020. (Where were they last Thursday, with our 13 bird catch?)

Every net caught this time, which makes a nice change. The list for the day was: Treecreeper (1); Blue Tit 4; Great Tit 1; Long-tailed Tit 3(2); Wren 2; Dunnock 2(1); Robin 1(2); Blackcap 2; Chiffchaff 1; Siskin 1. Totals: 17 birds ringed from 9 species and 6 birds retrapped from 4 species, making 23 birds processed from 10 species.

There was one unfortunately infected bird, this is a Dunnock that was ringed back in July 2023:

To be clear, had this bird had pox when we caught it first time round, we wouldn’t have ringed it. I am presuming that this is Avian Pox. Avian Pox was imported into the south-east of the UK from the continental mainland and spread rapidly outwards and northwards primarily in Great Tits, less so in Blue Tits. However, we have found it on several occasions in Dunnock, almost always on the feet, rather than the facial growths (as well as the body, leg and feet) found in the titmouse species. I thoroughly disinfected my hands and equipment and put the bag to one side for cleansing.

Whilst we were setting up the nets that run alongside Mallard lake, we heard an almighty splash, and then there were two enormous subsequent splashes, with water shooting up everywhere. Definitely not a bird (the local Mute Swans were over the other side of the lake), almost certainly not Otters, I would put money on it being one of the Beavers. We didn’t see this one, because of the foliage, but the last time I heard and saw that, I did see a Beaver swimming across to the Cormorant island. The Cormorants were very noisy this morning, lots of laughing and chattering.

It was lovely to see the three Great Crested Grebes out on the lake. In 14 years of ringing and birding there it is the first time I have seen that they have bred successfully at Lower Moor Farm.

Once again, the Great White Egret was strutting his stuff on the west bank of Mallard Lake.

We started closing the nets and taking down at 11:30. Naturally we caught another few birds, which meant we had to stop and process them before continuing with the take down. It was all finished and we were off site by 12:45.