The following blog post is by Jonny Cooper.
With the guidelines for ringing being revised I was keen to visit some of my sites to see how the birds were doing. Near the top of the list were Green Lane & Biss Woods. This reserve complex on the outskirts of Trowbridge consists of two woodland areas linked by mature hedgerows and areas of scrub. For the purposes of ringing each woodland is treated as a separate site.
The weather for Sunday and Monday was looking a bit hit and miss, so it was with some trepidation I headed to Green Lane Wood on Sunday. As it happens, the forecast rain never really materialised with, at worst, some light drizzle. The session was as expected: very heavy on the titmice, with a few other species in between.
The highlight was a bird that evaded the nets: a lovely male Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, which made itself known towards the end of the session. Overall, 53 new and 28 re-traps were processed, giving a total of 81 birds.
I woke up Monday morning ready to ring, to see heavy rain out of my window, so back to bed I went. Thankfully, the rain passed over and by lunchtime the sun was shining, so I headed to Biss Wood to do a short afternoon session around the feeding station. The session was very similar in its make up to the previous day, with large numbers of titmice caught. Overall, 55 new and 32 re-traps were processed, giving a total of 87 birds.
The full breakdown for both catches was as follows: Great Spotted Woodpecker 2, Nuthatch 4, Blue Tit 67(37), Great Tit 13(16), Coal Tit 4(2), Long-tailed Tit 3(5), Dunnock 4, Robin 2, Song Thrush 2, Blackbird 2, Goldcrest 1, Chaffinch 4. Giving 108 birds ringed from 12 species and 60 re-traps from 4 species giving an overall total across the two sessions of 168 birds processed from 12 species.
Two sessions that were very much as expected, but it was great to be able to get out ringing again.
Ringing In The Braydon Forest & Beyond 