I don’t think I have ever previously ringed the same site within 5 days of the previous session, until today. It was a bit of a mistake to be honest: but it turned out to be a pleasing one. We (this was a joint mistake) overlooked the fact that a bio-blitz was scheduled at Blakehill Farm on Saturday when we went ringing on Tuesday. Two good things came out of that (apart from our first two Lesser Whitethroat of the year): a net ride that had previously produced very little caught all bar one of our birds on Tuesday and the net rides that I would usually have set caught absolutely nothing. Mind, the wind forecast made those empty nets unusable anyway. As a result, I decided to set the net ride that had caught for this session again, and set another two net sets in the field on the opposite side of the track:
With the weather forecast threatening rain until 6:00 we agreed to meet at 6:30. I was joined by David and Rosie. Rosie would be running the bio-blitz volunteers, who were arriving at 10:00, and so managed to get a bit more ringing done than usual, which turned out to be fortuitous for her.
The first round that actually produced any birds, at 8:30, whilst I was getting close to tearing out what little hair I have left at the lack of any birds, delivered this beauty:
Second-year Male Green Woodpecker, Picus viridis (photo: Rosie Wilson)
It was in the net set that was successful on Tuesday. This is the first Green Woodpecker caught and ringed at this site, and was the first Green Woodpecker that Rosie has had the chance to process. The other birds in the round were more usual fare: a Blue Tit and two Dunnock. As we split off to do the next round Rosie went to check the nets where I had extracted the Green Woodpecker. Immediately I could hear the familiar calls:
Juvenile Green Woodpecker, Picus viridis (photo: Rosie Wilson)
So Rosie ringed and extracted her first Green Woodpeckers in consecutive net rounds!
The first bio-blitz volunteer arrived at 9:00 and the rest around about 10:00, which brought an end to Rosie’s involvement in the ringing this morning. In the interim we had a decent round of 11 birds, including our third Lesser Whitethroat of the week at the site (and of the year at any of my sites), and from the same net as the previous two. The list for the day was: Green Woodpecker 1[1]; Blue Tit 1[2]; Great Tit 1; Wren [2]; Dunnock [4]; Robin [4]; Lesser Whitethroat 1; Chiffchaff [4]. Totals: 4 adults ringed from 4 species and 17 juveniles ringed from 6 species, making 21 birds processed from 8 species. Once again, no retrapped birds.
I carried out a brief ringing demonstration to the bio-blitz volunteers, who were very keen to find out more about it and enjoyed seeing some birds close up. They then departed to start their blitzing. Immediately I was called over by them to see this beauty that they had found in the hedgerow:
Privet Hawkmoth Caterpillar, Sphinx ligustri
Soon after David and I had sat back down at the ringing station I noticed this crawling across the path:
I have been told that this is the caterpillar of a Mother Shipton moth, Callistege mi
With the wind getting stronger from 11:00, we started to shut the nets at 11:30. For once there were no last minute birds. David’s dad, Trevor, joined us and helped make the process of taking down so much quicker. We were packed up and ready to go by 12:15.
As an aside, I will be heading back there for the evening with my moth trap, to provide some sort of finale for the bio-blitz.
Ringing In The Braydon Forest & Beyond 