Lower Moor Farm CES 4: Wednesday, 5th June 2024

On site for 5:50 this morning. I had Andy to help me set up and Teresa to help me with extracting and processing the birds. We set the usual CES nets but left it at that as there was only the two of us. Although we are in June the weather was cold. Even when the sun came out there was a cold breeze blowing through the site. Not breezy enough to bother the nets but cold enough for me to keep my fleece on all morning! (What a wimp!)

The catch was slow all morning: possibly because it was so cool. The most we had was three birds in a round, but we did get at least one bird in every round. First bird out of the nets was a juvenile Robin but then it very quickly became Blackcap town. Of the 24 birds caught, 11 were Blackcaps. Although we did see small groups of Blue and Great Tit around the area, not one ended up in our nets! The actual list for the morning was: Treecreeper (1); Wren (1); Dunnock [1](2); Robin 1[1](1); Song Thrush 1; Blackcap 3[5](3); Chiffchaff [2]; Willow Warbler 1(1). Totals: 6 adults ringed from 4 species, 9 juveniles ringed from 4 species and 9 birds retrapped from 6 species, making 24 birds processed from 8 species.

Compared to last year’s result of 29 birds from 13 species, the reduction in diversity is quite marked: Green Woodpecker 1; Great Tit 1(2); Long-tailed Tit 4[3](1); Wren 2; Dunnock (1); Robin [2]; Blackbird (1); Cetti’s Warbler (1); Blackcap 1(1); Chiffchaff 1[1](3); Bullfinch 1; Reed Bunting 1. Totals: 12 adults ringed from 8 species, 6 juveniles ringed from 3 species and 11 birds retrapped from 7 species, making 29 birds processed from 13 species. However, the proportional number of juvenile birds is somewhat lower. It will be interesting to see how things compare in the next session (7 adults ringed from 6 species, 22 juveniles ringed from 7 species and 9 birds retrapped from 6 species, making 38 birds processed from 12 species). Most of the juveniles in that session were either Blue Tits (8), Great Tits (3), Long-tailed Tits (5) and Robins (3) – all of which, bar Robin juveniles, were missing from our catch today!

Andy returned at 11:30 to help us pack away. We closed the nets at 12:00 and took down, with everything done by 12:30.