Our run of ringing Great Spotted Woodpeckers came to a halt today: what a shame! With foul weather forecast for the week, when Tuesday showed a change and a break in the wet and windy weather I hastily got a team together. It was still predicting wind, so I needed to use a woodland site. Red Lodge was the next on the list so Rosie, Miranda, Teresa and I met at 7:00.
When I arrived to open the site someone had parked across the entrance, not quite entirely blocking it, thankfully. I could see these blue lights bouncing up and down on the path: it was a woman with her dog, and the dog’s collar had half-a-dozen blue LEDs on it. I opened the gate and waited until they had passed through. On passing she asked if I was opening the gate to allow the hunt to pass through. I replied “I ***** hope not!”: apart from my abhorrence at this barbaric pastime, nets do not mix well with hounds or horses (nor the individuals you find on them).
It wasn’t as busy as the last two sessions but, after Rosie left for work, it was still busy enough for the three of us. As expected, it was titmouse heavy. Unfortunately, Red Lodge is not the most varied of sites, and so it proved this morning. Finch catches are not usually very high and today we caught a single Chaffinch. To be fair, we do seem to be just getting singles of any finch species this winter at our sites.
The list for the morning was: Nuthatch (1); Blue Tit 19(9); Great Tit 10(9); Coal Tit 3(5); Robin 1(1); Chaffinch 1. Totals: 34 birds ringed from 5 species and 25 birds retrapped from 5 species, making 59 birds processed from 6 species.
It really wasn’t the most exciting session that we have ever had: I need this weather to improve so we can get out to some of the farmland sites! We packed away at 11:00 and were off-site by 11:45.
Ringing In The Braydon Forest & Beyond 