Miranda, one of my trainees, is on the committee of the Malmesbury & District Natural History Society. When she asked if I would be prepared to run a ringing demonstration for the group I was very happy to do so. We arranged to carry out the demonstration at Lower Moor Farm, as it is the easiest place for attendee parking, and provides a good open area for the demonstration to take place, and they can repair to the excellent café at the end of the session. To accommodate the large number of people who wanted to attend, we split the session into two groups: group one between 7:30 and 9:30 and then 9:30 to 11:30 for group two. My only concern was whether we would have a decent haul of birds, with a reasonable variety, for both groups. I was especially worried because of the disappointing CES results this year. Fortunately, I need not have worried.
I had plenty of support today: Miranda (obviously), Rosie, Laura and Adam, Teresa and Andy. We all met at 6:30 to get the nets open before the first group arrived. I used a somewhat different set up to that used for the CES. To start with, we set up a Mipit triangle in a field adjacent to the CES site. Also, Rosie had helpfully mown the CES net rides and created me two new rides:
We set lures on every net set, except net 5, for multiple autumn migrants, with net set 5 playing Meadow Pipit, and we hoped that we would have a decent return for our efforts. There was a good omen: on Friday, Ellie ran a session on the north side of Mallard Lake and had a good haul for two nets comprising: Blue Tit 2; Great Tit 1; Wren 2; Robin 1; Dunnock 5; Blackbird 5(1); Blackcap 1; Chiffchaff 1; Goldcrest 2. Totals: 1 adult ringed, 19 juveniles ringed from 9 species and 1 retrap, making 21 birds processed from 9 species. There were just two adults in the catch: one of the Dunnock and the retrapped Blackbird.
Meadow Pipits have not been a regular catch at Lower Moor Farm. I have only caught them there in September. My first catch was in 2014, when I caught 22 of them. I didn’t catch another until I caught one in 2020, nine in 2021, none last year, but it was successful this year, producing eight caught but, as per usual, there was a significant number that sat on the top of the nets and refused to be lured into the trap.
Our session started well, with Blackcap, Chiffchaff, Robin and Wren in the first round. Rather like other recent sessions, we had small regular catches throughout the morning, that ended up contributing to a very reasonable total. In fact, it was our biggest catch of the year at Lower Moor Farm. As usual, the Meadow Pipits didn’t turn up until 9:00. They are definitely one of the late risers of the bird world!
The catch was: Treecreeper (1); Blue Tit 1(1); Long-tailed Tit 12(5); Wren 2(2); Dunnock (1); Meadow Pipit 8; Robin 3(2); Blackcap 5(1); Chiffchaff 2; Goldcrest 1. Totals: 34 birds ringed from 8 species and 13 birds retrapped from 7 species, making 47 birds processed from 10 species.
The key catch was, clearly, the number of Long-tailed Tits. We think that they were caught in three family groups. I base that on the fact that each group was caught close together, in the same net at the same time. The first group was caught at 8:30, the second group at 9:30. These first two groups each comprised one ringed bird and four unringed. The last group was caught at 11:00 and comprised three retrapped birds and four unringed. Of the retrapped birds in this last batch, two had consecutive numbers: PKJ698 and PKJ699, with the third being PKJ702. They were all ringed as juvenile birds at the same session, caught at the same time in the same nets in June of this year, almost certainly brood mates. By now both adults and young have undergone full moult, both post-breeding and post-fledging respectively, into the same plumage, making it impossible to age them accurately with any confidence.
Perhaps the most exciting catch of the day was a juvenile male Blackcap, ring number AFZ5454. It is a UK ring but not one of ours. I look forward to finding out where it has come from.
The catches were reasonably well distributed between the two groups of attendees, and they, in return, were extremely pleased with what they saw. There were lots of questions and a lot of interest in the answers, including one attendee who expressed interest in becoming a ringer.
Alongside the bird ringing demonstration some of the attendees were lucky enough to come across the local Otters crossing the path in front of them on their way to the café at the end of their session. We also had the Great White Egret, that has been at the site for the last couple of weeks, make an appearance: at one point perching on top of one of the trees on the opposite bank.
For a day that was forecast to be completely dry and calm, we had sporadic light rain showers and, at 11:00, the wind got up. Because of that, and the fact that the catch had fallen away, we decided to shut the nets and take down. We had a lot of really positive feedback from the attendees and, apparently, the organisers have received loads of text messages expressing their enthusiasm for the session. Embarrassingly, I had to endure an extended round of applause from the attendees before they left.
We had a lot of hands making light work, and so had everything packed away quickly and efficiently and were ready to leave site by midday. I hope that next Sunday’s ringing demonstration for the Swindon Wildlife Group is as successful as this one.
Ringing In The Braydon Forest & Beyond 