For me there can only be one true highlight: ringing my first Curlew at Blakehill Farm:
Curlew, Numenius arquata
As a part of the north-west Wiltshire lowland Curlew monitoring project being run by our team member (and employee of the Wiltshire & Swindon Biological Records Centre) Jonny Cooper, this is the second colour-ringed / tagged adult bird since the project started, and only the second adult ringed in Wiltshire in at least 40 years. The tag number is white 69. If you live in Cornwall keep an eye out because the first one tagged in April 2021 has been seen each winter since on the beach in Cornwall multiple times, and all over the Cotswold Water Park and the Braydon Forest in the Spring and Summer. This bird has already been seen near Starcross golf course just outside Exeter and then at Portscatho beach, near Falmouth.
There have been a number of other highlights for me this year. My work with the RSPCA Oak & Furrows Wildlife Rescue Centre has given me a couple of golden opportunities: my first access to a Red Kite:
Red Kite, Milvus milvus
I was also able to ring a couple of Swifts, which was the first time I have ever managed to see them close up and age and sex the species and I also had the opportunity to study adult Rooks and Carrion Crows.
Jonny has had multiple highlights this year. The first was a Mute Swan which he rescued from a combination of a fence and brambles at Langford Lakes in August. That was followed by, not just his first catch of a Redstart, but the first he has ever ringed as a part of the West Wilts RG. It was a bird on autumn passage, caught in September at a farmland site near Hilmarton.
Juvenile male Redstart, Phoenicurus phoenicurus*
One would also have to add in the addition of Tree Sparrow to our species list. Again, this is all down to Jonny taking on a tranche of nest boxes as part of the long running Wiltshire Tree Sparrow project. In addition to ringing pulli he has also caught and processed a number of adults.
Tree Sparrow, Passer montanus*
Tree Sparrow pulli*
He also got to catch and process his first Kestrel for six years. His first was ringed as a trainee because he had a very generous trainer! I wonder who that could have been?
Kestrel, Falco tinnunculus*
In terms of species highlights, the team continued to benefit from the sites on Salisbury Plain, again catching a wide range of autumn migrants but, yet again monitoring the Stone-curlew breeding on the Plain and ringing another two this year. However, the stand out catch (to me) was 22 House Martins caught at the site near New Zealand Farm on SPTA on 3rd September. Our previous best catch of the species was also at New Zealand Farm, on the 14th September 2020, with blanks in 2021 and 2022, despite good catches of other species in September in those years.
* Photos by Jonny Cooper
Ringing In The Braydon Forest & Beyond 