Following on from yesterday’s post I have waded through the entirety of the data from that decade and that is what follows, if you are interested, and have the stamina to look through it. For each site there is a table showing year on year statistics plus a graph comparing the average numbers of birds processed per session (columns) and the number of sessions per year (the brown line), with a trend line (blue dotted) showing the trend for each site. At the end I have consolidated all sites to give a final analysis.
Ravensroost Wood:
The Firs:
Somerford Common:
Webb’s Wood:
Red Lodge:
The Braydon Forest Totals:
Despite the variations in the number of sessions in each wood over the years, there is a remarkable amount of consistency. Of all sites, the Firs is the only one that shows an increasing trend in catch size over the years. It will be interesting to see what the impact of the current forestry works will have on the catches. Red Lodge shows consistency of catch over the years. Both Somerford Common and Webb’s Wood have shown a slight decreasing trend, whereas Ravensroost Wood shows a more pronounced decrease in catch size. That has certainly been driven by the reductions in the last two years. It now has the lowest average catch size of any of the sites, just below Webb’s Wood, although the catch at Webb’s was seriously affected by the thinning works removing an entire winter’s catch and the following spring catch. The overall impact is that the catch has reduced very slightly over the decade.
Somewhat to my surprise, the largest average catches are at Red Lodge, with 6 birds per session more than the next largest: Somerford Common. There is more to find out from this data. With the current forecast for filthy weather next week, perhaps there will be more of this, be warned!!!
Ringing In The Braydon Forest & Beyond 