I told the team that we would start at 6:00 this morning only, having awoken early and unable to doze comfortably, I was actually on site by 5:30. As I pulled into Sandpool Farm entrance I was greeted with this:
Half-a-dozen empty beer cans and assorted associated debris dumped on the grass beside the gate. What is wrong with people? Why are some people just so thoughtless? The Trust and volunteers will now have to clean up after them. Should I also mention the kind dog owner who had deposited a bag of dog poo on one of the picnic tables for someone else to remove? Looks like I have.
I was joined by Miranda and Rosie and, just a little later, by Steph and her daughters, Lillie and Bea. Lillie was the youngest ever ringer to do any ringing with me: starting out at age 6! It has been a while since they have all been out with me but I was delighted to see that she has retained all of her skills.
We set our usual CES nets. The weather was interesting: we started in fog, which started lifting at about 7:00, then the sun broke through until 10:00, when it all clouded over and we had a sharp burst of rain, that disrupted things for 30 minutes, before the sun came out again. Unfortunately, as the sun came out, the breeze got up and started gusting quite strongly. Remarkably, none of it really adversely affected our activity, apart from hiding from the rain for a short while.
The first couple of rounds were quiet: three and four birds respectively, but the third round was 11 birds and the fifth round produced 12 birds. After the rain, a couple of reasonable rounds before we closed the nets just before midday.
The list for the day was: Treecreeper [2](1); Blue Tit 1[8](1); Great Tit [2](1); Wren [3]; Robin [2](5); Blackcap [11](1); Garden Warbler [1]; Chiffchaff [1](2); Bullfinch [2]. Totals: 1 adult ringed, 32 juveniles ringed from 9 species and 21 birds retrapped from 6 species, making 54 birds processed from 9 species. To be clear: 6 of the retrapped birds were juveniles ringed in previous CES sessions.
This is a big improvement on last year’s CES 9: Wren [1]; Dunnock (3); Robin (2); Blackbird (1); Blackcap [2]; Chiffchaff 1[3]. Totals: 1 adult ringed, 6 juveniles ringed from 3 species and 6 birds retrapped from 3 species, making 13 birds processed from 6 species. I compared the weather for both sessions and, I have to say that last year’s weather was actually better than we had today!
We have caught very few Bullfinch so far this year: before today we had ringed just six of them. Today we caught three: one was an adult male but, unfortunately, it was showing signs of Fringilla papillomavirus on both legs. It wasn’t pronounced or well advanced but we never process sick birds and, as FPV affects the legs, it would be even more crass to put a ring on it. The beauty of today’s catch was that the two birds we did catch were our first juvenile Bullfinches of the year:
Juvenile Bullfinch, Pyrrhula pyrrhula
In case anyone is concerned, its tail was all there, just hiding behind my hand!
I didn’t manage to get a photo of it, but we were rather lucky to see a Lesser Emperor dragonfly, Anax parthenope. Lucky because there were several photographers on site, with their huge large lenses, trying to see them, let alone get photographs, but without luck.
Rosie had to leave at 8:00 to get to Devizes for a Wildlife Trust meeting, and Steph and her girls left after the rain shower, just after 11:00, as Steph had work to get to as well, leaving Miranda and me to see it through to the end. I think that the hardest work of the morning fell to Miranda. She was on willow catkin removal duties from our 3 x 18m net ride, ride 5, whilst I took down the other 3 x 18m net ride. We then took down the rest of the nets and packed away, with all finished and ready to leave site by 13:00. All in all, a very satisfactory session.
Ringing In The Braydon Forest & Beyond 