Whilst restricted to my Wiltshire Wildlife sites (hopefully we will get good news from Forestry England today or tomorrow) I am visiting them on rotation and today was the turn of the Firs. I was joined for the morning by Steph as, previously mentioned, I am also rotating my trainees during this difficult period.
I will be setting up feeding stations this week for my other sites, but have not yet done so for the Firs. The catch was fairly predictable: heavy on the Paridae, light on everything else. The site is always low on finches for some reason and today was no exception. What was unusual about this session was that two-thirds of the catch were retrapped bird.
Among the new birds caught was this rather stunning Great Spotted Woodpecker:
The photo was taken by Steph – and the nails are hers as well (just in case you were wondering).
The list for the morning was: Great Spotted Woodpecker 1; Blue Tit 3(4); Great Tit 2(8); Marsh Tit (1); Long-tailed Tit (1); Robin (1); Blackbird 1; Goldcrest 1(1). Totals: 8 birds ringed from 5 species and 16 birds retrapped from 6 species, making 24 birds processed from 8 species.
We packed up at 11:30 after a nice relaxed session and cleared site just as the first spots of rain started to fall.
Ringing In The Braydon Forest & Beyond 