I would like to say that I love this time of year but it is hard to be enthusiastic at 3:30 in the morning! One of the problems is that your thought processes are not quite in gear: why else would I have decided to wear shorts to a site that is rife with stinging nettles? Anyway, I was on site by 3:50 and started putting up the nets. Rosie had offered to join me at 4:00 but, as she has to come over from the Forest of Dean area, I told her to have a lie-in and get there for 4:30 (I am all heart), which she did!
We had the nets open by 5:45, but before embarking on our mist netting exercise, we had a Barn Owl box to check. I had first checked it on the 1st June and found four nestlings which were too small to ring at the time. Rosie climbed the ladder and opened the box, only to find that our four had become two! We can only assume that during the ensuing two weeks food had become scarce and sibling cannibalism came into effect: the reason why Barn Owls start brooding eggs as soon as they are laid, to stagger the hatching and the growth of their young. Oddly, there was a vole in the owl box. However, we did watch one of the parent birds quartering the field looking for more prey in broad daylight. That is not usually a good sign for prey availability. Anyway, we ringed our first Barn Owl nestlings of the year.
Unfortunately, between the start of the netting session and when Rosie had to leave at 8:00, to go and shear some sheep, we caught only nine birds. As a “thank you” for her efforts, I let Rosie process all of the birds netted until she had to leave. Between 8:00 and 9:25, I caught only three birds, and then nothing until 11:00, when I decided to shut the nets and pack up. Of course, that meant that I found another seven birds in the nets! By way of improving the outcome of the session, these included my first Blue Tit and Blackcap fledglings of the year:
The list for the morning was: Barn Owl {2}; Blue Tit [3]; Great Tit 1(1); Wren 1(1); Dunnock (2); Robin [3]; Blackbird (1); Blackcap [1]; Chiffchaff [2](1). Totals: 2 adults ringed from 2 species, 9 fledglings ringed from 4 species, 2 pulli ringed from 1 species and 6 birds retrapped from 5 species, making 19 birds processed from 9 species.
Given how poor the catches have been recently, and that these Passerines are all insectivorous, it was surprising to see the sheer volume of insects that were flying around the site and the adjacent meadows. Not quite clouds of butterflies yet but certainly getting there. Alongside that, there were plenty of day flying moths, and around the pond, plenty of gnats and small flies: it doesn’t seem as though a shortage of food is the key issue.
Although today was dry and warm, hot by the time I had packed away the nets, it was breezy on and off all morning. In fact, wind seems to have been the key feature of our weather. I was going to say “recently” but it does seem to have been the case for the last year or more, which does tie in with the reduction in my catches. Anyway, I was packed up and off-site by 12:30.
Ringing In The Braydon Forest & Beyond 