The Firs Wiltshire Wildlife Trust nature reserve is known locally as “the Braydon Bog”, and it is certainly living up to its name at the moment. One of the locals who came over to walk her dog said that it was in the worst state that she had seen it in the 17 years she has lived opposite and used it to walk her dogs. I had a team of four with me today: Ellie, Jonny, Andrew and David – and we all ended up absolutely filthy and mud-spattered.
I set up a feeding station down the main central glade on Christmas Day: a bit of postprandial exercise. A work party has recently strimmed back the bramble and dog rose and extended the wildlife ponds. It will be good to see what impact the larger ponds have next year. On checking the feeding station yesterday, I was encouraged to see good numbers of birds on and around the feeders. This did bode well for the session this morning – and it proved to be a busy session.
It is not surprising that the major part of the catch was Blue Tit. The only disappointment is that there is still no sign of Lesser Redpoll or Siskin around yet. The list for the session was: Great Spotted Woodpecker (1); Blue Tit 24(30); Great Tit 9(5); Coal Tit 7(2); Wren (1); Dunnock 1; Robin 1(1); Goldcrest 2(2). Totals: 44 birds ringed from 6 species and 42 birds recaptured from 7 species, making 86 birds processed from 8 species.
So, not the most exciting catch we have ever had, but it does give the lie to the anti-ringing propaganda that claims that so few birds are retrapped that ringing delivers very little science.
One oddity in the catch: a one-legged Blue Tit:
We checked it thoroughly: there was no stump, no sign of any damage to the area where the leg should be, so it rather looks as though it is a birth defect. I have not seen that before (and I have handled over 20,000 birds in the last 10 years). It was perfectly healthy and weighed in at a respectable 10.5g, so it is clearly not being negatively impacted by it.
At 11:30 we decided that we had trudged up and down the hill through enough mud for one day and so closed the nets and packed away.
Ringing In The Braydon Forest & Beyond 