As I was working solo again today, and operating in a public area, I decided to keep things simple and set just 7 x 18m nets. I arrived on site at 5:00 and had the nest open by 6:00, but didn’t catch my first bird until 7:15.
I didn’t set the usual nets either side of the crossroads, because I wanted to have virtually a full view of the setup from the ringing station, just in case. I needn’t have worried: everyone I met was pleasant, interested and helpful. Without exception, the dog owners volunteered to keep their dogs on leads until they were past the nets.
I wasn’t expecting a large catch: and I wasn’t disappointed. Unfortunately, there were large gaps between catches and I had forgotten to bring my book, my phone was running out of battery (which I had to save in case of needing to take a photo or two) and O2 decided that I have apparently used 80% of my 2Gb data allowance for June, whilst my phone is telling me that I have used less than half my data allowance. I will need to keep an eye on that. What all that means is that there were some fairly dull patches during the session. Those were filled with plenty of bird song still: which is why it was a little frustrating that more weren’t hitting the nets.
I started with two birds at 7:15 (adults Chiffchaff and Dunnock), then nothing until 8:30, nothing again until 9:15, then 9:30, 10:10 and 10:30 and nothing thereafter until I shut the nets at 11:00. I took down in stages to give the busiest nets (those nearest the ringing station in the car park) a chance to possibly catch some more (they didn’t).
Despite the small catch there were several highlights. At 9:30 I caught our first juvenile Goldcrest of the year:
One of the bird species providing a rather lovely musical background to the morning was Willow Warbler. Unfortunately they were adding to my mild frustration and I was resigned to not see them today, until on my last catching round I extracted a juvenile Great Tit and two Willow Warblers: one of which was my first juvenile of the year:
The adult Willow Warbler was well into both its wing and tail moult, as was the adult Blue Tit extracted at 9:15. One can expect that the Blue Tit, having completed its breeding season, would undergo post-breeding moult. I was a little more surprised by the Willow Warbler, as I am pretty certain they will be producing at least one more brood this summer.
The list for the day was: Blue Tit 1[3]; Great Tit [2](1); Marsh Tit [1]; Wren 1; Dunnock 1; Robin 1; Chiffchaff 1; Willow Warbler 1[1]; Goldcrest [1]. Totals: 6 adults ringed from 6 species, 8 juveniles ringed from 5 species and 1 retrapped bird, making 15 birds processed from 9 species.
As mentioned I started taking down at 11:00 and, taking it easy as the sun had finally fully come out, was packed away and left site just on midday.
Ringing In The Braydon Forest & Beyond 