I don’t usually ring on the Blakehill Farm plateau until mid to late August. However, with reports of early migrants passing through Wiltshire at the moment, I decided to try a session in the hope that we might snaggle an interesting catch. It helped that the weather forecast was for virtually zero wind and a clear, sunny day. The British weather has turned decidedly windy since 2020 and I really have to grab every opportunity to get to this exposed site. Since I started ringing at Blakehill in early 2014 I have only once previously ringed there in July. That was on the 24th July 2020 and I only caught seven birds: Great Tit 1; Wren 1; Dunnock 1; Blackbird (1); Chiffchaff 1; Goldfinch 2. The singles ringed were juveniles, the Goldfinches and retrapped Blackbird were adults. To be honest, it is a good job I didn’t look at that, it might have given me second thoughts.
Anyway, I was joined for the session by David, Sara and the Childs family: Laura, Mark, Daniel and Adam. We set a decent number of nets:
I put on a few lures for migrant species: nets one and three had Redstart and Wheatear, net set four had Meadow Pipit and net sets five and between eight and nine had lures for Whinchat and Stonechat. They were all a bit of a punt on the off chance: one worked. Certainly I was being very optimistic with the Meadow Pipits: we have never had them arrive any earlier than September in all the time we have been catching them at Blakehill Farm.
We met at 6:00 and had all of those nets open by 7:15. I really need to get a second hole maker and hammer, particularly when we are looking to put up a relatively large number of nets. I did try out a hand augur this morning: complete waste of time, as it was a woodworking augur. I gave it to Mark to go with his hobby carpentry. The first birds arrived straight away: a trio of Wren, Reed Bunting and our first Lesser Whitethroat of the year! We never catch lots but they really have been few and far between since our last good catch of 16 in 2020. Since then they have been in single figures each year.
Adult male Lesser Whitethroat, Curruca curruca
The rounds were all very light: either one, two or three birds per round and a total of only 18 birds. However, the catch was a really pleasant and different selection. The breakdown was as follows: Wren [2]; Redstart [1]; Whitethroat 1[1]; Lesser Whitethroat 1[1]; Chiffchaff [2]; Starling [3]; Linnet 1; Reed Bunting 1[4]. Totals: 4 adults ringed from 4 species and 14 juveniles ringed from 7 species, making 18 birds processed from 8 species.
Our fifth productive round produced our second Redstart in two Blakehill sessions, the previous one being on the opposite side of the site:
Juvenile female Redstart, Phoenicurus phoenicurus
A little later in the session we caught our second Lesser Whitethroat of the day. This time it was a juvenile and, after processing he decided to hang around for a bit:
I took it out of the weighing pot and opened my hand to release it and it sat on my thumb. It must have sat there for well over a minute and it was only when Adam reached over to see if it would hop onto him that it decided to go, flying off strongly along the hedgerow.
Early on, Adam noticed five birds on the bush at net 6. Being young and enthusiastic, he ran over to that bush, as one of those birds had ended up in the net!
Juvenile Starling, Sturnus vulgaris
Having run all that way, and made a good job of extracting the bird, it would have been harsh not to let him process it, so he did. As luck would have it, on the penultimate round we caught another two. Their moult was progressing nicely:
According to the ringer’s bible for Passerines: “Identification Guide to European Passerines” by Lars Svensson, this is a male bird.
With the wind picking up at 11:15, we shut the nets at 11:45, not without getting another cracking bird: our first Linnet of the year! Had I been able to get to Brown’s Farm this side of the New Year, I would no doubt have got a fair few more, but this was a real bonus:
Adult male Linnet, Linaria cannabina
I pulled rank on this one: the only bird I processed all morning. All of the bird photos, except the adult male Lesser Whitethroat, were taken by Sarah Emery and are reproduced with her permission.
We started to take down about 12:15. Mark, who had disappeared to find something to drink, returned with ice lollies for the whole team. What a really kind gesture, and very welcome in that heat. That, I am pleased to say, is what it is like with my team: we do the job, we have a good laugh, and can fill the time comfortably when there aren’t many birds around.
With eight of us to take down (David’s Dad Trevor had arrived and joined in the clear up) it really didn’t take long to get everything put away. I had a few things to put in the case before leaving, so sent everyone away as there was nothing left for them to do. Unfortunately, in between Mark returning with the ice creams and them reaching the gate, someone with a key had decided to lock us in. I know it wasn’t Nobby, the other landowner, because we had discussed it earlier and agreed that I would lock up on leaving. Besides, if he had done so, Mark would not have escaped the site for his drink, so it has to be a Wildlife Trust employee and there is only one who lives nearby! I shall have words! It was only a minor hold up for them but irritating nonetheless.
Ringing In The Braydon Forest & Beyond 