Ringing In The Braydon Forest & Beyond

I spent Thursday with Ellie, and her sister Milly, doing the first round of follow ups on our successful early season Barn Owl ringing sessions. We ringed 43 youngsters this early season in eight nest boxes! We went and checked our Braydon Forest boxes: seven of the total, plus another five that had been empty first time round.

We started at one of the empty boxes, at Purley Farm. The box was only erected last winter, so we didn’t have high hopes for this year. First time round it was empty, this time there were lots of owl pellets and a dead field mouse in the box, so definitely being used as a roost.

Our second box was at Plain Farm. We ringed seven of eight chicks, as one was very small. Arriving at the box and owl flew off. On checking, we found the box empty, about 6″ depth of pellets and absolutely no signs that anything untoward had happened to the youngsters. Successful nest number 1.

The next box was over the road at Drill Farm, where we ringed four of five youngsters. Again, a fledged owl flew out, checking the box was, again, showing signs of successful fledging. Successful nest number 2.

Third on the list was Home Farm Barn: empty first time round, which is unusual as it is usually one of my most regular sites. The adults are roosting there. Just over the road from there is another box, and I suspect that might be where we will find the nest. I will check that next Thursday.

From there we headed to Somerford Farm where we actually have a box in a barn! After so many years of having nothing but Jackdaws, two years ago we had our first barn Owls in that box, and that has been the case since then. This year it was the best so far: six youngsters having fledged. There were a couple of dead voles in the box as well.

The next Somerford Farm box was even better: we had ringed seven chicks in this box. Again, a fledged bird flew out as we approached, the box was full of pellets and no signs of failure – and so it went on. Every box we checked was successful.

The penultimate box we checked was at Blakehill Farm, in the Allotment Field boundary. This box was empty first time round because, somehow, the access door had come free and was about 6′ away from the box. Given that it is fastened with a bolt, I wasn’t sure how that could happen but we put it back. Fortunately, it was still in place when we got there and when we opened it:

These two are just about ready to fledge. Their wings have a bit of growing to complete but their weights are pretty decent. Now, this is an “after” picture. People of a delicate disposition might like to look away now. Otherwise scroll down.

Before we get to that, this has been a phenomenal year for Barn Owls. Our team, i.e. me and my agents, have ringed 87 Barn Owl pulli in just 20 boxes. Our previous best year was 2024 when we ringed 33. Normally it is in the 20’s.

When we opened the box we actually found this poor thing, which probably explains why its siblings were s0 well fed:

The only evidence of brood cannibalism we have found this year. I will be checking them again in the next couple of days to check their weight and see if they will need supplementary feeding.

Following the disappointment of Saturday I was hoping for better at Blakehill Farm this morning. I was joined by Miranda, Laura and Ellie. Because of the projected forecast, with the breeze coming from the west, we made some changes to the net set up, so that some of the nets would be protected from the wind:

Suffice to say, we did better than Saturday but not as well as we did last time we were here! That said, it was the average for this site for this month ever since we started ringing there in 2014.

It was a very pleasant morning, lots of chatting and a few very nice birds, the best of which was this:

My absolute favourite bird! Anyway, over the course of the morning we caught the following: Blue Tit [4]; Great Tit [1]; Wren 2(1); Dunnock [1]; Robin 1[4](1); Blackbird [1]; Blackcap [4]; Whitethroat [1]; Lesser Whitethroat [1]; Chiffchaff [4]. Totals: 3 adults from 2 species; 21 juveniles ringed from 9 species and 2 birds retrapped from 2 species, making 24 birds processed from 10 species.

The wind got up quite strongly at 10:45, so we shut the nets and started to take down. I had the renewed joy of extracting mist nets from Blackthorn bushes. We were off-site by 11:45.

If any of my sites has displayed the negative impacts of the heatwave it is the Firs. In June and July we averaged 80 birds per session: a high of 120, a low of 51. Today was just 14 birds! This is despite the fact that the site is full of berries, rose hips and red currants, from the tree whose name I can never remember. Unfortunately, the two wildlife ponds are as dry as a bone and I suspect that has had the greatest impact.

I was joined for the session by Miranda, who is usually only available midweek, and will probably be the same in future, and David. We set our usual nets, put on lures for various migrants and waited. Basically, we brought back two birds per round, with the odd one, one three and several blanks!

The list for the session was: Blue Tit 2; Great Tit 2(1); Wren 2(1); Dunnock (1); Robin 2; Song Thrush 1; Blackcap 2. Totals: 11 birds ringed from 6 species and 3 birds retrapped from 3 species, making 14 birds processed from 7 species.

On the topic of Song Thrushes, this one ringed takes us to 30 for the year. This is the best result since 2016. The catch is pretty evenly spread across all of our Braydon Forest and Lower Moor Farm sites.

We shut the nets at 11:00 and sloped off home soon after! Onwards and upwards: Blakehill Farm West in Wednesday, and East on Saturday: let’s hope the Meadow Pipits have arrived!

An excellent month as usual in August. Despite the heatwave causing disruption: I went 10 days with no sessions, the team managed to get some excellent catches and good numbers.

So fewer birds processed, but in three fewer sessions, two of which were down to me, but the average numbers ringed were higher.

Added to the list from last year were: Hobby, House Martin, Meadow Pipit, Reed Bunting and Stock Dove. Missing this year were: Barn Owl (not surprising as we did no box checking this month – I am rather dreading what we might find), Firecrest, Jay, Magpie, Swift, Tree Pipit and Yellow Wagtail.

Jonny has had a particularly productive month: apart from his youth and enthusiasm, a lot of that is down to ringing sites with plenty of water, like Langford Lakes. He also had the brainwave of carrying out an evening roost session, hence the House Martins and the fledged / adult Swallows. He was also blessed with this:

This is only the third caught by anyone in the group past or present. The first was by what is now the North Wilts Group at Swindon Sewage Works. Second was at Langford Lakes on the 11^th August two years ago, and this one on the 14^th August this year, also at Langford Lakes.

This is the second year running that Ian and Andy have caught six Nightjars on their Salisbury Plain sites. Each time, they have been caught in August, presumably on migration. In fact, only 20 have been caught by the group. All since 2020 and all in August, except a single on the Imber Ranges in early September 2023.

All Tit numbers were well down on August of last year: I doubt our fingers are complaining. Anyway, another excellent month, with good numbers and good variety in the catching. Looking forward to September!

As a trainer, I spend most of my sessions advising, supervising and scribing for the team. If it is just me and one other, then we might share the processing but, even then, biased in their favour, as they are learning. By a twist of fate, I spent this morning working solo at Lower Moor Farm. Today I planned on a quiet session and set just six nets: 5 x 18 + 1 x 9m nets. Easy to set up and take down and get a manageable catch size.

The last time I did a solo session at Lower Moor Farm was back in August 2014. Wanting a quiet day I only set 3 x 18m nets. This was the list from the session: Kingfisher 1; Blue Tit 20; Long-tailed Tit 21; Wren 2; Dunnock 1; Robin 4; Song Thrush 1; Reed Warbler 2; Blackcap 36; Garden Warbler 8; Whitethroat 2; Lesser Whitethroat 7; Chiffchaff 26; Willow Warbler 5; Bullfinch 1. Totals: 2 adults ringed from 2 species, 20 unaged ringed from 1 species (Long-tailed Tit) and 115 juveniles ringed from 15 species, making 137 birds processed from 15 species. In fact, I just released 20 Great Tits without processing them as it was just too busy. My biggest ever solo session, and I never want another one like that.

We had a couple of 100 bird catches in August of 2015, but nothing like that since. Fortunately, this morning I had a very pleasant session, with a good, and highly manageable, catch. It was also somewhat unusual. The first bird out of the net was a female Reed Warbler, followed immediately by a Wren. Wrens exist for one reason: to torment trainees! Needless to say, with no trainees in attendance, the two Wrens that I extracted came straight out: no spinning, no multi-pocketing, no crawling through the mesh of the net. Anyway, it was a very easy morning, particularly the extractions. As any ringer knows: Blackcaps are generally one of the easiest birds to extract and, as the list shows, there were a lot of them this morning.

The list for the morning was: Wren [2]; Robin [2]; Blackbird [2]; Reed Warbler 1; Blackcap 1[24](2); Chiffchaff [1]. Totals: 2 adults ringed from 2 species, 31 juveniles ringed from 4 species and 2 retrapped birds from 1 species, making 35 birds processed from 6 species.

It is pretty unusual to have one species making up 77% of the catch: Blue Tits can frequently dominate a catch, but never to that extent.

The wind got up at 9:30 but, fortunately, it did not affect the nets. However, the catch dropped away at 10:15 and I gave it two more rounds, at 10:30 and 10:45, both were empty. At 10:45 I closed ride 1 and took it down. Then, at 11:15, I went to take down net ride 2, whereupon I found another five birds in the net: four Blackcap and one Blackbird. I closed the nets and then processed the last five birds before taking the rest of the nets down and clearing away. I left site at about 12:15, very happy.

I was joined this morning by Miranda, Steph, Ellie and Pete, and the morning’s entertainment, 7 year old Bea. We met at 6:00 and set about putting up our nets. Our last trip to Red Lodge was back on the 15th July and it was pretty disappointing: 18 birds ringed and 3 retrapped. For today I decided to change the net setup, so that we were adjacent to the large pond near the entrance to the site. Having made that decision, I came to site yesterday with my brush cutter and strimmed out the vegetation for rides 1 and 3 below. Before the next session I will get the other two sides of the pond strimmed. Over the winter we are going to need a big session to clear a lot of the Reed Mace and various rushes that are taking the pond over. There were still areas of open water, but not many.

Having mentioned for Sunday’s session the lack of Blackcaps, I was pleased to catch a few this morning. As seems to be par for the course as the moment, the catch was not massive, but it was reasonably diverse. This time last year we caught 100 birds more from another eight species than we have achieved so far this year. That was in eight sessions, whereas this year we have only managed six. The weather doesn’t look as if it will help us fill that gap, with rain forecast for the rest of the month!

It was, as seems usual, a slow morning, but we did get birds in just about every round. Between 8:00 (we had as much fun today as we had on Sunday getting the nets sorted out and set up. Just like Sunday, one 18m net in ride 2 proved impossible to sort out, as though the loops had gone through holes and were really tangled. After 15 minutes of trying, we replaced it. In another remarkable similarity to Sunday, during a quiet few minutes I took the net out and it opened just fine! (Perhaps I should do all of the net setting!)) and our final round at 11:30, when we closed the nets, we did 12 visits to the nets to extract 33 birds!

The list for this morning was: Blue Tit 3[4](1); Great Tit 2[1]; Wren [2]; Dunnock [1]; Robin 3[2]; Song Thrush [1]; Blackbird [2]; Blackcap [6]; Chiffchaff [3]; Willow Warbler [1]; Goldcrest [1]. Totals: 8 adults from 3 species, 24 juveniles from 11 species and 3 birds retrapped from 2 species, making 33 birds processed from 11 species. So, considerably better than our last session here.

Song Thrush seem to be doing well this year. Another five in the next four months and we will have had our best haul since 2016. It is, currently, our best number since 2021, with the total for the years in between being 19 or less.

I have said before about how great my team is. On Wednesday last, my clothes dryer, for hanging the bird bags on, fell over and one of the three arms snapped off. This morning I went for a walk, to set up the lures, and on my return I found a parcel by my table. It was a superb, high quality replacement: a present from Miranda. Just so thoughtful.

Anyway, with all of us available to take down, it took us just half-an-hour after we had processed the last two birds, so we were off-site by ten after midday.

That title is not too surprising: it is our first visit to this part of the reserve this year, having had to abort the previous attempt due to a seized padlock. I resolved that issue on Friday and planned for Saturday. Unfortunately, Friday night put paid to that, so I had to move it to this morning. That meant that Ellie, who was working until very late Saturday night, couldn’t join us until 7:30, and then had to leave by 10:30 to get back to work! In the event, she didn’t miss much, as we caught all bar one of the birds in that timeframe! Pete and I arrived on site at 5:30 and we had one helluva time sorting out the nets: never before has it taken me an hour and a half trying to erect just six nets! I have no idea what went wrong, all I can say is that the nets I packed away at the end of Wednesday’s session, all came out okay. It was the other nets. Unfortunately for Pete, he was in the firing line for the miserable old sod trying to sort them out! One of them steadfastly refused to untangle itself so I had to replace a 12m with a 9m. Not ideal.

This was the layout:

I took one bird out of the net whilst Pete was pushing up the rest of the nets: a Wren. Ellie arrived soon after, and we did our first round. It was a decent round as well: we started with 10 birds, four of which were Stonechat! Four is our largest catch of them at Blakehill Farm East. We have had several threes, but they are usually ones and twos. These were our first ones of the year:

Also, in that first haul was our first Linnet of the year: a juvenile:

It is over 10 years since we caught good numbers of Linnet at Blakehill Farm: it is usually just one or two per session, although we did have five in March of 2025.

Our third first for the year was this:

This was the highlight of the session. After the first two rounds, a total of 17 birds, the whole thing died a death. We didn’t catch another bird between 8:30 and 10:00, then two at 10:00. This was when the sun came out and the place went from 9^oC to 20+^oC, and the birds just disappeared. The two at 10:00 enabled Ellie to leave, having finished her session with a bitey Blue Tit. Pete and I agreed to take down the nets at 10:30! We did catch and process one last Chiffchaff. One thing, whilst we had time to spare, I decided to have a look at the net that had defeated us when setting up. Guess what? It came out absolutely fine, no sign of the tangle that we encountered first thing!

The list for the session was: Blue Tit [3]; Great Tit [1]; Wren 2; Stonechat 1[3]; Whinchat 1; Whitethroat 2[2]; Chiffchaff [3]; Willow Warbler [1]; Linnet [1]. Totals: 6 adults ringed from 4 species and 14 juveniles ringed from 7 species, making 20 birds ringed from 9 species.

The most surprising thing about this morning’s session was the complete absence of Blackcaps. At this time of year, with a lure playing, they usually are the main part of the catch. I suspect it is the absence of hedgerow nets that has led to that but, with just the two and a half of us available for the session, it would have been too much to manage. We need two groups: one to manage the hedgerows and the other to manage the bushes, as there is a heck of a lot of walking involved. I actually set the ringing station where we usually set the Mipit triangle. There was no sign of Meadow Pipits and, also, no sign of the usual irruption of Craneflies that brings them in. It is a shame that they don’t seem to be attracted by Small Heath butterflies, because there was a load of them flying around all morning.

We were off-site by 11:40. Happy with what we caught, just a shame there weren’t a few more!

With the extremely dry conditions after the heatwave, and our small catch on Saturday at Somerford Common, I thought that I would try to organise sessions at sites where we can catch autumn migrants and where there is a source of water. For today I agreed with the Wiltshire Wildlife Trust that I could change my scheduled session to the meadow pond area in the Ravensroost complex. They happily agreed. The only downside was that, when we arrived, all of the ponds had dried out. Anyway, we gave it a go, and I am so pleased that we did. It was a small catch but the quality was first rate, and included two species new to this particular site, more of which later.

I was joined for the session by Miranda, Ellie, Sarah, Pete and Dorothy. We set rather more nets than usual, as I wanted to try out a new net position:

Rides 1 and 2 were the new set up. It delivered a single bird, a very nice Chiffchaff, but it also took as 40 minutes to take it down at the end of the session as the wind got up, came from the direct opposite direction to that which was forecast, and which had prevailed for the rest of the morning. We had left a good distance between the nets and the barbed wire top of the fence, but it wasn’t enough! Deep joy!

Anyway, the first bird out of the nets this morning was:

This is our first ever capture of the species at this site, our second of the year, after the one at the Firs a few weeks ago, and our eleventh in any of my sites. Sarah is the only one of the team who hadn’t processed a Spotted Flycatcher, so we gave her the bird to process.

Round 1 was the only round to produce a reasonable number of birds, with eight. Subsequently we had 3 x 4 bird rounds and one each of 3, 2 and 1 birds, and several with no birds at all.

Our next good bird was our third Lesser Whitethroat of 2026. The first was in May at Ravensroost Meadows, the second was at Blakehill Farm a month ago. None at Lower Moor Farm yet – which used to be a stronghold, Fingers crossed!

The next round produced our third Ravensroost Meadows Reed Warbler of the year, our third juvenile. This was a juvenile that had completed its post-fledging moult.

The first bird out of the net was a really nice surprise. The penultimate was, for us, an absolute stonker of a bird. Sarah gave me a shout and said she was having trouble getting a bird out: it had twisted in the net, like a large Wren. I went to help and recognised it straight away:

Fortunately, as a trainee, back in 2011, I spent a week at the Icklesham reserve in East Sussex, near Rye Bay. One morning I spent an hour on the Grasshopper Warbler processing line and ringed eight of them in that period. This is only the third we have ever caught at any of my sites. The first was at Blakehill in 2015, the second at the same place in 2022. Today’s was the first for Ravensroost Meadows. I love the colouration of the species but, particularly, the detail of the undertail coverts:

A super bird.

The catch for the session was: Blue Tit [1]; Great Tit [1]; Wren [2](1); Spotted Flycatcher 1; Robin [4]; Song Thrush [1]; Blackbird 1[2]; Grasshopper Warbler [1]; Reed Warbler [1]; Blackcap 1[1]; Whitethroat [2](2); Lesser Whitethroat [1]; Chiffchaff 2[1]. Totals: 5 adults ringed from 4 species, 18 juveniles from 12 species and 3 retraps from 2 species, making 26 birds processed from 13 species.

We packed up and took down at 11:30, taking out the leaves, brambles and barbed wire. Everything was sorted by 12:30 and we were off site soon after. Well, once I jump started my car with my portable battery booster, I was off site. I love the car but it is insane that opening the rear hatch actually drains the battery! (Mazda CX-30, in case you are thinking of getting one.)

So, not a big catch, but 13 species in just 26 birds! Two new species for the site, and one just our third ever Grasshopper Warbler, and the other just our eleventh Spotted Flycatcher in the 13, nearly 14 years, I have been ringing in the Braydon Forest and Lower Moor Farm.

We haven’t been out at all during the last week, because of the heatwave: I didn’t want to add any stress on the birds, or my team, come to that. I was joined for the morning by David and Pete. We set fewer nets than normal, because I was being cautious, still having some concerns about ensuring the welfare of the birds. I needn’t have worried: they came in small numbers, just one or two in a round, if we caught any.

All nets were 5-shelf. Rides 1 and 2 were 18m, 3 was 18m and a 12m, 4 was two 18m nets. Nice to see that Ordnance Survey have updated their aerial photograph of the area.

The list for the session was: Blue Tit 1; Wren 1(1); Robin 3; Blackcap 3; Whitethroat 1; Chiffchaff 2; Willow Warbler 2. Totals: 13 juveniles ringed from 7 species and 1 retrap, making 14 birds processed from 7 species. All birds ringed were juveniles, the retrap was an adult female Wren. She was currently refeathering her brood patch after the breeding season.

It actually isn’t our worst August catch at this site: that was just 10 from 6 species in 2021. Before yesterday our average August catch at Somerford Common was 41 birds processed from 11 species. It is hard to know whether yesterday was down to the heatwave or the lack of nets we set!

There were highlights. The key one was our first ever juvenile Whitethroat for this site.

This is only the third Whitethroat caught at this site. The previous two were caught 10 years ago: one on inward migration in April, the other on autumn migration in August of that year. No more for ten years, so a lovely record for the site. Juvenile Willow Warblers are always a joy! Somerford Common has always been our best site for the species, throughout the breeding season, although we catch more in the Ravensroost complex in August, but not in May, June or July.

We were a little surprised that we didn’t catch more Blackcaps, but that is just0the way it was. With the wind getting up at 10:30, we closed the nets at about 11:00. I spent the next 20 minutes extracting leaves from ride 2! There were easily 100+ birch leaves in there. Fortunately, a lot can be shaken out, but an awful lot needed extra assistance. Everything was packed away and taken down by 11:45 and we were off site soon after.

I think the key for now is to work near water. That leaves me with three options: Lower Moor Farm, Red Lodge (if I get in and cut the rides around the main pond) and Ravensroost Meadows. At least the first and last are good sites for autumn migration. That said, as soon as the wind drops, and I have managed to unseize the padlock at Blakehill Farm East, we will be out there for autumn migrants.

This morning we were scheduled for a session on the plateau area and its surrounding hedgerow adjacent to the Chelworth Industrial Estate which, we refer to as Blakehill Farm East. We had a good turnout this morning, with David, Steph, Laura and Adam to help. Everybody was looking forward to the start of our normal Autumn migration catch, particularly Whinchat, which is the only place we catch them, with the single exception of one at the Meadow ponds in the Ravensroost complex in September 2019. In 10 years we have caught 63 of them on Blakehill East.

It was a 5:30 start, I opened the main gate, drove down to the gate onto the plateau and waited for the team to arrive. Because of the distance to the net rides, and the amount of equipment we have to take, I take the car out to the centre of the ringing site. With everybody assembled I went to unlock the padlock on the gate: nothing. Absolutely jammed solid. I am not sure that even a liberal dose of WD40 would have done the trick. Unfortunately, I didn’t have my usual can with me in the car. We briefly contemplated doing it all from the gate but nobody wanted to spend the morning jumping over the gate carrying equipment and then doing the same with any birds we caught, finishing off by having to remove it all at the end of the session. Instead we decided to go around to the farm side, Blakehill Farm West, and set the nets there, although it isn’t long since we were last there and caught 36 birds from 13 species, two of which were Magpies.

Anyway, we cracked on and got the nets setup but, with the delayed start we didn’t get them open until 7:30: a good hour catching time lost! We set the following nets:

One of the issues I thought we might have is that I changed my lures to reflect the expected catch for the plateau and hedgerow. With the exception of Whitethroat, we don’t usually catch Stonechat, Whinchat or Meadow Pipit on this side of the reserve. I was right!

We started catching straight away, but it was sporadic, small catches each round, with the exception of the round at 8:45, where we had 12 birds. The list for the session was: Blue Tit 1(2); Great Tit [7]; Wren [2]; Dunnock 1; Robin [6]; Blackbird [1]; Blackcap 2[4]; Whitethroat 1[6]; Chaffinch [1]; Reed Bunting [1]. Totals: 5 adults ringed from 4 species, 28 juveniles ringed from 8 species and 2 birds retrapped from 1 species.

So, not the biggest catch, but some nice parts to it. To start with, seven Whitethroat is a nice haul for this site. We had another fall of juvenile Robin and Great Tit. To start with, we thought Robin would make up 50% of the catch, but Great Tit and Whitethroat overtook them.

We did have the cutest juvenile Reed Bunting. It was in full juvenile plumage, with no sign of any white collar. Although I didn’t sex it on data entry, because it hadn’t started its post juvenile moult, I am pretty sure it was female. It was so cute I was going to put up a photo: but Mr Ham Fisted (me) allowed it to escape whilst putting it into the photographic grip.

However, we also had an interesting juvenile Chaffinch.

It was undergoing its post-fledging moult. Looking from above there was no trace of blue in the crown, nor any other obvious indicators from casual observation. Fortunately, Steph’s eyesight is better than mine (in my defence, the sun was incredibly bright and I didn’t have my sunglasses with me) and she picked out these:

Nice pink patches developing on the breast – so a juvenile male Chaffinch.

It was getting hot by 11:00, the birds had taken shelter, so we thought that we should as well. We shut up shop and took down. Every net set had caught something, so that was good. The only unfortunate thing is that our T-junction set up, once the absolute stalwart of our catching area, failed again to do a good job. We used to be able to rely on it for a good 20 birds a session, at least five of which would be House Sparrows. The majority would be the 9m net comprising the branch off to the farm gate but, with no observable change to the make up and, from the noise they generate, no obvious fall off in numbers, we just don’t catch in there any more.

One other slightly unfortunate incident: we caught a beautiful male Bullfinch. Sadly, although it was early signs, it looked as though it had Fringilla papillomavirus, and had slight crusting at the top of each lower leg. Laura did get a fabulous video of it sitting on Adam’s hand, which I would love to post, but there are some funny people out there, so I will run it past the BTO first.

Anyway, we were off site by midday. Driving onto the site first thing, apart from the stag Roe Deer that ran alongside my car, he was on the plateau, for a considerable distance (I was only doing 10mph) a couple of Skylarks fluttered across in front of me, giving excellent views.

However, the highlight of the day for me was, as keyholder and closing all the gates, etc, I saw a largish white bird fly up from the plateau by the cattle and land on a post just in front of me. I stopped to look, but it didn’t stay long, certainly not long enough for me to get my phone out for a photo. I have seen them in other countries but this was my first UK Cattle Egret! I know they have been around some of the other Wiltshire Wildlife Trust farmland reserves, but I love a first for me for the UK. A lovely end to the day!