Andrew Bray, after a couple of months of leading wildlife tours around Europe, set up for a ringing session in his garden in the hamlet of Potterne Wick in middle Wiltshire. The day started bright and sunny, with the nets open at 6:00. By 10:00 the wind had got up and so Andrew closed the nets.
The list was fairly predictable for a garden session: Blue Tit 1[17]; Great Tit [11]; Dunnock [6](1); Goldfinch 1. Totals: 2 adults from 2 species; 28 juveniles from 3 species and 1 retrap, making 37 birds processed from 4 species.
There is no doubt that Blue and Great Tits have had an excellent breeding season. Perhaps the most surprising catch though were the 6 juvenile Dunnocks. That is an excellent number for a garden session. The recaptured Dunnock was ringed in the garden almost exactly 1 year ago and is Andrew’s first garden retrap.
Ringing In The Braydon Forest & Beyond 