I had planned to run this session on Thursday but, with rain forecast between 7:00 and 9:00 that day, I moved it to Friday. The intention also was originally to run it at Somerford Common, as part of the winter CES plan. Unfortunately, moving it to Friday meant that Miranda couldn’t make it, leaving just myself and Teresa. Although Teresa is making excellent progress as a new trainee, I thought that the potential for an 80+ bird catch would be pushing her limits a bit. So, I swapped Red Lodge from Saturday to Friday, knowing that I have a full team out tomorrow to do Somerford Common, and, having only set up the Red Lodge feeding stations on Tuesday, I thought it would be a lot quieter and less pressured for Teresa.
We set the following nets:
We met at 7:30 and had the nets open by 8:30. By 9:00 the nets were full. So much for a quiet morning! The pair of us got on with it and extracted the birds as quickly as we could. In order to ensure control, we shut each net as it was emptied. It was, of course, an absolute Tit-fest: primarily Blue and Great Tits.
The list for the day was: Treecreeper 1; Blue tit 27(3); Great Tit 15(7); Long-tailed Tit 1(1); Coal Tit 2; Robin 1; Goldcrest 1; Chaffinch 2. Totals: 50 birds ringed from 8 species and 11 birds retrapped from 3 species, making 61 birds processed from 8 species. We did have a third Chaffinch but it had scaly-leg syndrome, so I just released it. There was also a third Coal Tit but he went a bit droopy on me, so I did my usual: popped it in a bag and put if down my front, against my skin, to warm it up. I am delighted to say that it did the trick. In fact, it did the trick so well that, as I went to take it out of the bag, it escaped my grasp and flew off!
It was hard work and, although the ambient temperature didn’t drop, a cold breeze did get up, I got cold, and so we never did reopen the nets: 61 birds caught in 75 metres of net with no lures playing was way more than I was expecting. I was impressed at Teresa’s composure, given that this was only her fourth or fifth session actually extracting birds. She just got on with it, asking for help where necessary (which wasn’t very much).
We packed up and left site soon after 11:00 after a much busier session than expected.
Ringing In The Braydon Forest & Beyond 