Ringing In The Braydon Forest & Beyond

On Thursday of this week, Wednesday having been far too wet and windy, we went to Ravensroost Meadows. I was joined by Miranda, Laura and Ellie at 6:30, and we set the usual nets. It was very dark when we got there but, as we were entering the site, a large flock of Pied Wagtails flew out of the reed bed that has now taken over the pond there, due to this dry weather and the ponds being empty.

Well, our session was very poor: Blue Tit (1); Great Tit 1(1); Wren 1(1); Robin 2(1); Song Thrush 1; Blackbird 1(1); Blackcap 3. Totals: 9 birds ringed from 6 species and 5 birds retrapped from 5 species, making 14 birds processed from 7 species. All of the ringed birds were juvenile and all of the retrapped birds, bar the Wren, were adult birds.

We packed up at 11:30, thoroughly disappointed at yet another disappointing catch.

With the weather for Saturday morning being bad in the morning, I decided to move our session at Red Lodge to Sunday. However, having seen the Pied Wagtails leave on Thursday morning, I fancied having a go at doing an evening session to see if we could catch them coming in to roost. David, Laura, Ellie and Adam all agreed to join me. We arranged to meet at 18:00. I got there at 17:40, Laura, Adam and Mark at 17:50 and David and Ellie at the agreed time. (Mark is Laura’s husband and Adam’s dad, he doesn’t ring but helps a lot with the grunt work, and is a good laugh to have around.) Laura and I did a quick bit of brush cutting around the periphery of the reed bed, and we had the nets erected by 18:15:

All nets were 5-Shelf Ecotones. 1 & 3 were 12m; 2 and 5 were 18m and 4 was a 6m. We then went and sat and waited for the sky to darken. The Pied Wagtails started to arrive earlier than expected. However, the first bird out of the net was a Robin retrap, that we had ringed on the 12^th September. However, earlier than expected, we extracted 12 Pied Wagtails at 18:30. That was brilliant. We processed them and then went to check the nets again: this time, at 19:15, we took another 41 Pied Wagtails out of the nets! Apart from that, there were plenty flying over the nets.

That was the end of the catch for the evening. We had kept the first batch of processed birds in their bags and, when it became clear that there would be no more birds, we closed the nets. Mark released the “stored” birds and the team released their birds after processing. It was dark but not dangerously so.

It was just the best session we have had for such a long time: and something completely new for my team. I have done a few night roosts myself, but the rest of the team hadn’t and, to be honest, this is the first time any of our sites has been shown to hold a roost like that, and we were so pleased to be able to take advantage. Equally, I was the only member of the team that had ever ringed a Pied Wagtail, so it was right to give them the opportunity to ring approximately 15 of them each.

Once we had processed them all, we furled the nets and left them in place, having agreed that we would come back for 6:00 this morning, open the nets and see what happened, We also agreed that we would skip the Red Lodge session and have an early finish.

It was pretty foggy on the way down. Cold and misty over the meadows. I got to site for 5:45 and had all bar one of the nets unfurled and open by 6:00 when the others arrived. We didn’t expect to get anything until about 7:00. What we didn’t expect, though, was to get absolutely no more Pied Wagtails. There was a retrapped Robin, one that we ringed on Thursday, and a new, juvenile Reed Bunting. We did check the reed beds, did have a bit of a walk in, but nothing flew out. It is really odd: they must have decamped in the dark.

Anyway, last night was so good that we were not unhappy. We took down at 7:30 and were home in time for breakfast at just after 8:00!

Prior to last night’s catch, the entire team had caught just 38 Pied Wagtails from 1st January 2013 until this catch last night. The best previous catch was nine, on two separate occasions. The first back in 2013 in the sewage works near Calne, and the other on farmland near Sutton Benger. My little team were responsible for just five, all singles, before last night. I say “my team”, actually they were all solo sessions by me. A real boost for our Pied Wagtail numbers! Although I just let the team process all of last night’s birds, didn’t take a single one myself, I had already processed 33 fledged birds and one pullus in my career – and 13 White Wagtails. That was due to my early days as a trainee where my trainer had access to the sewage works owned by Thames Water. The White Wagtails were all at the Marlborough sewage works.

I had a look back through all of our records, that go back to the year 2000 and the only catch higher than this one was way back on the 3rd January 2003 in the Safeway Supermarket (now Morrisons (but for how much longer?)) in Swindon! That was 67. The next highest is something like 49 but nothing closer and not many at all in the 40’s. Indeed it seems most of the higher catches were at Safeway Swindon, with one at Safeway, Devizes!

Just a fabulous session: from the pits of Thursday to the peak of Saturday evening – and I had recorded the football, so had Croatia 0 England 7 to look forward to and enjoy as well!

Not as many as this time last year, but still decent. I think that the key issue with the numbers are down to the dearth of birds in my woodland sites. Plenty of food but no water in the ponds and streams. The best catches this month were on Salisbury Plain, as one would expect with the autumn migration happening but, more significantly, on known wetland and marshy sites. I might have to look for some wetter sites for my team. They might not be getting fed up, but averaging 22 birds per session is not good, especially when you have three trainees out with you!

Added to the catch this month were: Barn Owl, Bullfinch, House Martin, Nightjar, Starling, Stock Dove, Swallow and Tree Sparrow. Missing from this month’s list were: Coal Tit, Garden Warbler, Mallard, Nuthatch, Skylark, Whinchat and Woodpigeon.

The Stock Doves and Barn Owls were pulli. I was particularly pleased with the Barn Owls as, when I checked the box in May its front had been removed and we had to find it and refit it. When we opened it up again we found this pair:

The first Nightjar the group ringed was back in 2020. Thanks entirely to Ian and Andy’s efforts on their Salisbury Plain sites, the number has increased pretty much year on year. Last year it was six, this year it is seven, thanks to the second ever September catch. The previous September bird was in 2023.

Something good is happening with our Stonechat catches. This year we have, so far, caught 28 of them. A phenomenal 20 were with Andy and Ian on the Imber Ranges, 7 of them at Blakehill and one on a new site for the species, on a farm near Charlcutt. This is our best annual total, with three months left to go. Peak catches are between July and the end of November, so there is every chance of it improving still further. One key element about the birds caught on Blakehill Farm: it was only last year that the site monitors were definite that they had bred on the site for the first time. We are pretty confident that the four we caught in one session at Blakehill were an adult female and three of her brood: all together, same net, same time.

Most of our migrating warbler numbers were up a little, Blackcap showing the biggest rise, with 83 more birds than last year. However, Lesser Whitethroat were the same as last year but Whitethroat numbers were a little down, and the single Garden Warbler caught last year was one more than we caught this.

The key declines were in Meadow Pipit and our resident species: particularly Blue Tit, Great Tit, Long-tailed Tit and Goldfinch.

On to October!

We do a couple of ringing demonstrations for the Swindon Wildlife Group each year: usually autumn and late winter. Today was our second of the year: and the most popular to date. Robin Griffiths, naturalist and organiser extraordinaire, told me that the whole thing was oversubscribed by over 100% of the maximum allowed. I really like doing them, for multiple reasons. The key one is getting the children involved, training them on how to safely handle and release a bird, as well as giving everybody the chance to see the birds up close and showing them about the ageing and sexing of them. I always start with an overview of the scheme, how it works and what the benefits are: allowing us to monitor the age, status and movements. I always illustrate that with how people thought that Swallows and Martins disappeared into the bottom of ponds in the winter, and why Barnacle Geese are so named.

I was joined for the session by Miranda, Laura, Adam and Ellie. We set the following nets:

The attendees arrived for 8:30, just as we finished setting up, and we had five birds to show: a Whitethroat, two Dunnock, Blackcap and a Great Tit. I am pleased to say that the rest of the morning went that way.

Most pleasing were the Meadow Pipits! In 2025 we only caught two in the whole year. When out checking the Barn Owl boxes last week I saw a couple of Meadow Pipits in the fields, so was hopeful we might catch a few. Yesterday morning I went to check on the site, to see what nets I was going to set, and I seeded the area that net set 2 was going to be set up with dried mealworms. It worked: 17 ringed and one retrapped. I will be interested to see where it was ringed, as it wasn’t one of my rings!

As you can see from the pale edges to the median coverts, this is a juvenile. The next photo shows the comparative colourations:

This was very satisfying but there was more:

Since 2019 we have regularly caught just two Linnets every year, and none in September. This morning we caught five! Their decline at this site is quite sad, and pretty well inexplicable. Nothing significant has changed but back in 2015 we caught 42 and the last good year was 2018, but with only 16 caught, and then it crashed completely.

This was then followed by this:It is simple enough to age: if you look at the head you can see that is still retaining a lot of juvenile head feathers. There were lots of feathers in pin under the wings. Also, the flank feathers were typically juvenile male:

The list for the session was: Blue Tit [1](1); Great Tit [2]; Dunnock [2]; Stonechat 1[2]; Meadow Pipit 3[14](1); Robin {1}; Blackcap [1]; Whitethroat [1]; Chiffchaff 1[1]; Linnet 3[2]; Starling [1]; Reed Bunting [2]. Totals: 8 adults from 4 species, 30 juveniles ringed from 12 species and 2 birds retrapped from 2 species, making 40 birds processed from 12 species.

The forecast for the morning was for virtually no wind, until about the time the attendees started drifting away, when a breeze would spring up – and that is exactly what happened. We shut the nets at 11:30 and started taking down, finishing at 12:30.

All in all, a nicely satisfying session. I know that the attendees were delighted with what they saw, and the organisers also showed their appreciation with a significant contribution to my costs. Next one will be in late February / early March.

I have to be honest, I am seriously thinking that I will have to either abandon my woodland sites for the time being or else set up my feeding stations much earlier than I would normally do so. After so many quiet sessions, so much effort and so many hours put into gathering fairly paltry numbers of data, it seems I have to make a choice. It would have helped if the weather hadn’t been so windy, so I could run sessions at Blakehill Farm and pick up the usual autumn migrants. we are there, to carry out a ringing session for the Swindon Wildlife Group, and the weather is, for once, looking hopeful. I have seen Meadow Pipits around the site, so fingers crossed. Anyway, to the source of my depressive introduction.

I was joined yesterday by Laura, Ellie, Claire and, after she had dropped her daughter off at breakfast club, Steph. Good people and good to spend time with, which is just as well. We met at 6:30 and started setting up. Because it was a large team, we set quite a few more nets than usual:

249 metres of nets set, five experienced ringers – all we needed was some birds. The first mishap: only two of my lures wanted to work. I fiddled around and managed to persuade another two to actually start working. I suspect that I have inadvertently put a .wav file on the SD cards, rather than .mp3.

To be fair, there were no further mishaps just very few birds: Blue Tit 4; Great Tit 5(2); Wren 1; Robin 1; Blackcap 5; Chiffchaff 2; Goldcrest 1. Totals: 19 birds ringed from 7 species and 2 birds retrapped from 1 species, making 21 birds processed from 7 species. All of the birds processed were juveniles except for the Goldcrest and one of the retrapped Great Tits.

So, because I processed one of the Chiffchaffs, that was five birds per ringer! Putting it another way: 0.084 birds per metre of net! The only consolation: our awful session in the Firs produced only 0.071 birds per metre of net.

Why did I process the Chiffchaff? I actually extracted the bird and it went very quiet on me, almost playing dead. So I tickled its tummy, blew into its mouth and put it in a bag and slipped it down my front, between my undershirt and my body. It works pretty much all of the time: after 15 minutes in there I could feel it wriggling against my body: I am never sure if it is the warmth or the smell that gets them active: all I know is that it works. Anyway, I processed the bird and it flew off nice and strongly, so I am happy with that outcome.

Anyway, we were amused for a good 20 minutes by an elderly woman who was power walking up and down the track: it was the way she looked like she was on a mission and span on her heel to turn just before she reached us. First time we thought she was coming to give us an ear-bashing about how cruel we were and how unnecessary it all is, but she didn’t, thankfully. They can be as rude as they like but I have to remain calm and polite! Mind we did have explanatory signs up everywhere around the net rides and at the entrance to the wood.

The gentle breeze turned into a much fiercer gusting wind at about 11:00, so we shut the nets and took down. We were off-site by midday.

I was joined by Claire and Miranda at 10:00 this morning to check on the boxes we didn’t do last week. We started at Lower Pavenhill Farm. Back in May we ringed seven chicks and left the eighth, as it was too small to ring. We drove carefully through the 40-odd mares and foals, plus a couple of stallions, down to the box. For once they ignored us completely, and we didn’t have to guard the car from getting licked or nibbled to pieces. On approaching the box a Barn Owl flew out. Looking in, the box was empty, apart from a mountain of pellets. I dug through the mass looking for signs of brood cannibalism, of which there were none, so I am pretty confident that the brood fledged successfully. The sheer number of pellets gave testament to that!

From there we went to White Lodge Farm. This is just over the road from Gospel Oak Farm. The first box is down the farm track and, until recently, had Jackdaws nesting there. This year we caught an adult male Barn Owl roosting in there back in May. Possibly the male from the brood at Gospel Oak. Anyway, Andrew, the farmer, had taken some video of a Barn Owl visiting their second box, in a small yard at the back of their house:

We went to check the box and had a lovely time with some very friendly, and totally gorgeous, pygmy goats. What we found was quite interesting: not Barn Owls but a squirrel dray. I wonder if the owl was visiting for food? Regardless, the lining of the nest box was primarily oak leaves and, as I pulled them out, the goats came over to join us. One was so keen he stepped up the ladder alongside Miranda! Anyway, apart from a slight worry that my companions might try to smuggle out one of the goats, it was a satisfactory conclusion. Hopefully next year we might find Barn Owls nesting.

From there we went to Waterhay. Back in May there was nothing to get excited about. Today was worse. These are the boxes:

The Chapel box (1) was empty again. I will move it this winter. There is a suitable tree about 10m away. For those who watched Poldark, the Chapel is where they filmed his wedding to Demelza!

From there we went to box 2: empty last time, empty this time. Last year the entire brood was predated before we had a chance to ring them: too small when we first saw them, dead and gone with signs of carnage when we returned a month later. Next was box 3. That had three Jackdaw chicks in it when we went in May. Last year we found three chicks at the same stage in the same box at the same time: they were all dead. No idea why. This year they had fledged successfully. Unfortunately, it also threw up the most tragic find we have had this year:

We found 10 stone cold Barn Owl eggs in the nest! They were at various stages of development but definitely dead. Box 4 we didn’t even get to. The field had half-a-dozen thoroughbred horses in it and, even before we had got into the first field, they were prancing around, snorting and totally neurotic. I decided that discretion was needed, especially as one of the crew had already stated her fear of horses and cattle.

From there we went to Swillbrook Farm:

We met with Chris, the head farmhand, at box 1. This is a typically successful Barn Owl box: falling to pieces and rotting in situ. Chris is going to replace it this winter. As we approached one bird flew out. Three young were ringed in May. Unfortunately, we did find the remains of one of the three, but there was no sign of predation in the box. However, the front of the box had fallen off and we did think it likely that this bird had probably fallen from the box and met its fate that way! Miranda was delighted: I have never seen so many Barn Owl pellets! She had already collected a load from Lower Pavenhill Farm, but this was way beyond that: a large bagful, which is why I am pretty confident that this box was successful! Miranda is Chair of the Malmesbury and District Natural History Society and one of their pleasures is dissecting Barn Owl pellets. I think her group will be well pleased.

Box 2 was in a tree near the entrance to the farm but that blew down and Chris repositioned it to its current spot two winters ago. This year we found a few pellets, so it is being used as a roost. Then to box 3. This was originally positioned in the small barn to the left of the tree, but that collapsed in the same winds that brought the tree down. Chris had, again, moved it to a new position. Again, this was a bit sad as, although no Barn Owls were involved, we found two addled Stock Dove eggs.

So, to sum up this year’s breeding season, we ringed 45 Barn Owl pulli, of which we are confident 44 fledged successfully from 9 boxes, an average of 4.89 per box. Definitely our best ever year. The previous best was in 2021, with 26 from 8 boxes, i.e. 3.25 per box! Quite astonishing. Jonny Cooper started ringing Barn Owls independently, but as my agent under my schedule 1 licence, since 2023. In that first year he ringed 1 pullus, 2024 it was 2 from one box, last year was four from two boxes and this year a mere 42 from 11 locations: 3.82 per box. He has also managed to catch and ring seven adult owls this year. It had clearly been a bumper year for voles and field mice, unlike last year. We found no evidence of any non-rodent predation in the boxes: no Starling or Goldfinch remains.

Jackdaws were pretty standard for us: six pulli split between two boxes. For the last three years running we have found no Stock Doves to ring. Jonny has had a much better year with them than we have with 20 pulli ringed from eight nests and a couple of adult birds.

I was joined this morning by Laura, Miranda and Ellie. We met at 6:30, set the usual nets and had them open by 7:20: quite quick for us. Unfortunately, the session was as quiet as most recent ones.

Equally unfortunately, I was rather unwell and spent most of the morning just sitting down and being a bit out of it all. This meant that I missed the Wiltshire Wildlife Trust Volunteers barbecue. It was a talk on the work that will be carried out at Lower Moor Farm to provide suitable habitat for Snipe and other small waders, by a process of forming a scrape and rewetting the area around it. The whole thing sounds extremely promising. Miranda left us at 10:50 for the meeting at 11:00 and filled me in on the details later.

We had one of those sessions where we caught a few birds in every round. What was of note were the proportion of Blackcaps. The list for the session was: Treecreeper 1; Wren (1); Dunnock (1); Robin 3(1); Blackbird (1); Blackcap 17; Chiffchaff 1. Totals: 22 birds ringed from 4 species and 3 birds retrapped from 3 species, making 25 birds processed from 7 species. All birds ringed and retrapped were birds that fledged this breeding season.

We took down at 12:00 and were off site by 12:45. It is always hit and miss at this site in September: this was very much a miss.

We were hoping to work the plateau at Blakehill Farm this morning but, unfortunately, the wind forecast changed, with much higher base wind speeds and gusting up to 28mph. Working on the basis that, with the wind coming from the South West, the hedgerows that line the site would provide enough cover from the wind for us to set nets. I had planned to set nets all along the hedgerow in the meadow north of the pond area. On arrival I could see a nice wee herd of Belted Galloway cattle lying down on the far side of the field. Previous encounters have resulted in a slobber covered car and lots of inquisitive nosing around by the cattle, so I decided we could only set the nets around the pond. Typically, not only did they not show any interest in us, not even to come to drink from the trough nearby, but they decided to move around to the other fields to the south of our ringing area! I couldn’t risk it though, so we just kept to the nets around the ponds.

We set the normal nets around the pond. A couple were a bit affected by the wind, but we only ended up closing one early. Anyway, I was joined at 6:00 by David, Laura and Adam for the morning. Due to some mobility issues, I did nothing much today except scribe and focus on training the team on fat scoring, whilst double-checking their decisions on moult and ageing. Suffice to say, they were fine with the latter two elements, as I would expect. I did do the first extractions: two Blackcaps and a Chiffchaff, that flew in whilst I was setting up the sound lures for passage migrants. However, the first round produced the bird of the morning:

David’s first ever extraction and subsequent ringing of a Firecrest. We have only caught seven Firecrest in the Braydon Forest since I started my project there in August 2012. The first was in Ravensroost Wood in November 2015. A complete first for that site: both sightings and ringing. It did spark a wee local twitch when the news got out. In fact, each of these were the same: first sightings and ringing records for Red Lodge, Webb’s Wood, Somerford Common West and now in Ravensroost Meadows pond area. We have had second records for Red Lodge and Ravensroost Woods. The other one to mention was at Lower Moor Farm: a first, which also precipitated a sizeable local twitch.

Our first few rounds were nicely busy, but then it died off as the wind increased. However, it was our best September result in the Meadows since 2019, and our second best ever in September at the site.

The list for the session was: Blue Tit 2[7]; Great Tit [1]; Wren [1](1); Dunnock [3]; Robin [2]; Song Thrush [1]; Blackcap [11](1); Chiffchaff [5]; Willow Warbler [2]; Goldcrest (1); Firecrest [1]. Totals: 2 adults ringed from 1 species, 34 juveniles ringed from 10 species and 3 birds retrapped from 3 species, making 39 birds processed from 11 species.

It was a decent morning, with a lot of bird activity, just not coming down to net height! We closed the first net at just after 10:45, and closed the remainder at 11:15. The team took down and we packed away, leaving site by 11:45. A big thank you to David, Laura and Adam for doing all of the donkey work this morning. It was very much appreciated.

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!