April has turned out to be an excellent month for the team. Not too surprisingly, given that we were in lockdown last April, this was a much better month, with more than double the number of birds caught and a superb 37 species ringed, 39 processed, compared with 23 ringed / processed last year. Our previous best April was in 2017 and I have included this for comparison with 2021 and 2020.
The stand out catch of the month was this Curlew. We have heard that two Curlew chicks were ringed by Rob Turner and Tony Rowe at Manor Farm, Coulston on the 14th June 1984 and that one was ringed in 1992 and 3 in 1997. At the moment I don’t know if these latter ones were adults or chicks. It is still an excellent catch:
Compared with 2020 it is clear that we were restricted to our gardens at this time last year. When comparing with 2017 there are still significant differences, as there were over 100 more birds processed, 5 more species ringed and 6 more processed. The increased activity is almost all down to the increased activity from our C-permit holders working their own sites. For example, the catch of Sedge Warbler is entirely down to Jonny’s activity, primarily the reed beds at Langford Lakes and at the Melksham site. Also, there was a significantly higher catch of Blackcap.
Ringing In The Braydon Forest & Beyond 