This is a blog entry by Jonny Cooper.
Unfortunately, over the past few months I have not been able to get out and do as much ringing on my sites as I would have liked. It turns out doing a master’s degree full time is quite a lot of work. However, I was able to squeeze in a session at Meadow Farm; this is still a relatively new ringing site and as such I wasn’t sure what sort of size catch to expect.
The first round delivered a mixed flock of Blue and Great Tits totalling 20 birds, the titmouse party continued into the second round with another 15 birds processed. After this the catch settled to a regular 2 or 3 birds per round. All in all, 54 birds were caught.
The catch was as follows: Blue Tit 21, Great Tit, 24, Robin 3(1), Greenfinch 3, Chiffchaff 1 and Willow Warbler 1. Giving 53 new birds and a single re-trap. All the birds were juveniles apart from 1 Blue Tit, 2 Greenfinch and the re-trap Robin.
As this is the first summer of ringing at Meadow Farm the Chiffchaff and Willow Warbler were new birds for the site. The Greenfinches seems to be a small family group, consisting of a single juvenile and an adult male and female.
The session ended at 11:00 as the day really started to warm up. Overall it was an enjoyable session, even if the majority of the catch were titmice.
Ringing In The Braydon Forest & Beyond 