This won’t take long! I shifted the start time to 6:30 for today, to get the nets at Somerford Common open before it got light (it is only six nets). I knew it would just be Teresa and me for the bulk of the session, with Rosie doing her usual of helping set up, and hoping to ring a couple of birds before heading off to work.
The forecast was for it to start raining at midday. Anyway, I had topped up the feeders on Friday. It is a big 4 litre seed feeder and a 1.5 litre peanut feeder, both were empty first thing, which we cleaned out, refilled, opened the nets and then waited for the birds to arrive – and waited, and waited some more. We caught two Blue Tits, that Rosie and Teresa ringed before Rosie had to leave. In the next hour-and-a-half we caught just another five birds: one at a time. At 10:15 I decided that “enough is enough” and we closed the nets and took down. Just as I finished stowing the equipment into the car it started to rain!
An entirely appropriate end to a rubbish session! We caught the following: Blue Tit 2(1); Great Tit 1; Coal Tit (2); Long-tailed Tit (1). Totals: 3 birds ringed from 2 species and 4 birds retrapped from 3 species, making 7 birds processed from 4 species (not the most difficult maths I have ever had to do!).
Actually, there was one genuine highlight: at 8:30 a Stoat ran across the path, just a few feet away from our ringing station! I have seen the Somerford Common Wallaby more times (3) than I have seen a Stoat there (1)! Fabulous creatures!
Ringing In The Braydon Forest & Beyond 