After two busy sessions on Wednesday and Thursday I was looking for a somewhat less hectic time of it this morning. I decided to have a look at Blakehill Farm on Friday to see what was around. I specifically wanted to see what was in the area around the ponds on the south western side of the reserve. I was rather pleased to find a male Stonechat feeding from the bushes around pond 2 and, even better, I flushed six Snipe from the edge of the pond. That decided me so I told the team we would be meeting there. On my way out of the reserve a magnificent Raven was sitting nonchalantly on one of the fence posts lining the plateau. The gloss on its plumage was gorgeous. It is that time of year. Ravens have already started courting, and even nest-building, as evidenced by the activity on New Year’s Day at Webb’s Wood. One nice footnote on that: I reported the activity to Forestry England and the feedback is that they will revise their planned activity in Webb’s Wood this summer to ensure there is no disturbance to their possible breeding.
I was joined for the session by family Childs, David and Rosie. We met at 7:00, so I could have the pond nets set up before daylight, and set the following nets:
The 30mm mesh nets are specifically designed for catching waders. Unfortunately, the only thing they caught this morning was the second smallest bird of the session: a Long-tailed Tit. That’s life: totally unpredictable. I will try again the next time that the conditions are right for Blakehill, i.e. very little wind. The habitat is perfect for both Snipe and Jack Snipe, as evidenced by the fact that they overwinter there every year (and we have ringed both species in January and February). Neither did the Stonechat drop in to the nets, so a double dip on what I had hoped for.
The hedgerow nets did catch and we ended up with 20 birds: Blue Tit 9(1); Long-tailed Tit 2(1); Robin 4; Redwing 1; Goldcrest 2. Totals: 18 birds ringed from 5 species and 2 birds retrapped from 2 species, making 20 birds processed from 5 species.
Although it was a quiet session, apart from the opportunity to have good chat, and to give plenty of training oversight for Adam, Daniel and David, we had some splendid birding. Talking of the Ravens beginning courtship, we had an excellent bit of drama first thing. we noticed a Kestrel hunting over the pond area – and I was happily blaming that for the absence of Snipe. It perched in a tree for a bit and then flew off towards the plateau, where it encountered a second Kestrel. There was definitely some antagonistic behaviour between them but, then, the two of them flew back to the pond area and perched in a tree together. A few minutes later they flew off together, i.e. side by side. Did we witness them pairing up? I think we did.
The final episode that amused the team happened when we set about the final round. Throughout the morning we had a Robin hopping around the ringing station, sitting on my car, foraging under my car, and staying close to us. At 11:15 we decided to finish up. The catch had died off, we were cold and wanted to warm up, so we decided to shut the nets and take down. I went off to shut the wader nets, and the rest of the team went to check and shut the hedgerow nets. The Robin followed them down the track towards the hedgerow and the team went behind the net and the Robin flew straight in still following them, so it was the last bird of the session ringed.
Ringing In The Braydon Forest & Beyond 