An excellent month last month. September 2022 was our previous best September, with 1,400 birds processed, and our second best month ever. It was split out as 1,223 birds ringed and 184 birds retrapped. This year’s total rather eclipsed that and is, in fact our best ever month, with 1,790 birds processed, split out as 1,641 birds ringed and 149 retrapped. That is also our highest ever total of birds ringed in a single month, by over 300 birds. Jonny’s sites continue to produce astonishingly large catches; backed up by decent catches from Ian and my team. Finally my sites have produced some reasonable catches: particularly Blakehill Farm, fuelled by the arrival of the autumnal Meadow Pipits.
This is the list:
Added to the catch this year were Bullfinch, House Martin, Kestrel, Nightjar, Nuthatch, Redstart, Reed Bunting, Tree Pipit and Tree Sparrow. Missing from last year’s catch were Linnet, Pied Wagtail, Spotted Flycatcher, Starling and Stonechat. Of those, the Spotted Flycatcher and Stonechat were caught at Blakehill Farm. As the Spotted Flycatcher was actually caught in the Mipit triangle at Blakehill, and not one of the woodlands, that isn’t much of a surprise that it wasn’t repeated. However, given that Stonechat are around at Blakehill, and that I have been luring for them at every opportunity, I am disappointed that we haven’t caught any. That said, I am even more disappointed at the lack of Whinchat: two years running they have been missing from my September catch, despite there being good numbers at Blakehill.
Ian had an excellent catch of House Martins at New Zealand Farm: the first big catch of the species since September 2020. In fact, the 30 in 2020 plus the 22 this year are the only House Martins we have caught anywhere in September, except for one I caught at Blakehill Farm in September 2020. There was an interesting increase in the number of Swallow that were processed. Only two of them were fledged birds, the others were late brood nestlings at Waterhay Farm, Clattinger Farm, Hazeland Farm and Charlcutt Stables. My ones, at Waterhay and Clattinger, were eggs mid-August, ringed first week of September and fledged by the 19th September.
There were significant year-on-year increases in many species this year. If I start with the migrant species: Grasshopper Warbler (4 vs 1); Blackcap (382 vs 177); Chiffchaff (323 vs 180); Goldcrest (32 vs 21 – I know there is a resident population, but it boosted significantly in winter by migrants and both Somerford Common and Webb’s Wood has their best ever September catches, almost certainly die to incoming migrants) and Whitethroat (25 vs 8). Interestingly, there were fewer Reed Warbler (5 vs 17) and Sedge Warbler (7 vs 18) than last year. Of the resident species: Blackbird (18 vs 5); Blue Tit (165 vs 104) and Yellowhammer (14 vs 7) showed increase in numbers, but quite a few saw significant declines in the catch. These were: Cetti’s Warbler (5 vs 13); Dunnock (30 vs 52); Goldfinch (38 vs 139 – these figures might not have been so dramatic if we had been able to catch a fraction of the flocks at Blakehill Farm); Greenfinch (6 vs 30) and Treecreeper (2 vs 8).
The figures are there for you to see. In terms of variety, New Zealand Farm and Jonny’s East Tytherton site have been outstanding: with 19 species caught at each. An overall species list of 42 is also pretty good, our second best September (2021 had 44 species). The star bird has to be the Nightjar that Ian processed on the Imber Ranges. It is only the fifth caught by us, but it does seem to be becoming a regular catch on the Salisbury Plain sites, with the first in September 2020, three in August 2022, and now this one.
Here’s hoping for an excellent October as autumn migration out does seem to still be underway, whilst autumn migration in already seems underway.
Ringing In The Braydon Forest & Beyond 