It has been nearly two months since I have been able to set the nets in my garden. On that day I could only keep the nets open for 45 minutes before it became untenable. Unfortunately, there is a bit of a wind tunnel formed by the gap between the house and the detached garage and any breeze over about 5mph makes opening the nets untenable. With the forecast for it be a low wind of between 2 and 3mph until mid-morning, I opened the nets at 7:30 and was able to keep them open until just after 10:00. It did start to get breezy at 9:30, which meant the birds were made aware of the nets and could avoid them, so I only caught a couple of birds in the last 45 minutes.
Anyway, the thing that has been missing from my woodland catches are finches, with the exception of Chaffinch. I have had no Siskin or Greenfinch and just two Goldfinch and Lesser Redpoll since the start of 2024. With the strong showing of Greenfinch in the garden, with a maximum of 17 on one memorable occasion at the beginning of February, and regular counts of seven to nine birds coming to the feeders, they were my target for this morning. One point I would like to make, I have not seen a single Greenfinch showing any signs of ill-health in my garden for over 5 years now. I am hopeful that I never will again.
I fully expected to catch a few Goldfinch as well, as they are perhaps the most regular visitors to our garden. They didn’t let me down. The first round produced four Goldfinch and two Starlings. Thereafter I caught mainly singles of the three species that I caught this morning: Greenfinch 3; Goldfinch 9; Starling 3(1). Totals: 15 birds ringed from 3 species and 1 retrap, making 16 birds processed from 3 species.
I think I am going to have to move the nets: it would seem that the birds have learnt not only the locations but the best way to avoid them when approaching the feeders. I did have a couple of escapes from the nets: a Woodpigeon, two Blackbirds and two Starlings. Apart from that, there were at least six Greenfinch that kept flying up to the nets and then turning away, a similar number of Goldfinch, plus a pair of Chaffinch, a pair of Great Tit and a couple of Blue Tits. They might have been a pair but, as I didn’t catch them and they are sexually monomorphic, I couldn’t sex them, whereas I have deliberately used the term “pair” for the Chaffinches and Great Tits. My first catch of Goldfinch actually comprised two each of males and females: who knows? The Jackdaws also stayed well away from the nets. Once I closed the nets they all dropped in to help themselves to the sunflower hearts, fat balls, peanuts, minced peanuts and lard and mealworms, almost immediately.
Although I only caught one retrapped bird: it was a female Starling, LJ52352, that I ringed as an adult on the 12th April 2018. That is a pretty good age. This is the second time she has been retrapped: the previous time was in May 2020. Mind, the longevity record for Starling is 17 years 7 months and 25 days – so she has a way to go before getting there!
So, whilst I haven’t been able to get the nets open as often as I would like, I have had the trail camera out fairly regularly. There has been a couple of fairly rubbish Fox photos, but some lovely film of Hedgehogs:
It would seem that our Hedgehogs have not actually hibernated this year. Their feeding area has been moved into a hedgehog house, as I am not keen on feeding the neighbourhood cats! Interestingly, we did also get badgers in the garden, but they seem to have disappeared in recent times. There has been no culling local to me, so I hope it is a temporary absence. I still have some lovely film though:
Ringing In The Braydon Forest & Beyond 