A good month: just five birds shy of our best ever July figure (1,182 in 2020, coming out of lockdown! Are our gardens really that productive?).
We didn’t manage as many species as last July, but there were some notable additions. Firstly, I was delighted to catch only the second Yellow Wagtail for the group. Like the first, in May 2021, this was at Brown’s Farm. Unlike the first, a stonkingly attractive adult male, this was a juvenile. I know that they are doing well on the Marlborough Downs and that this could be one of their progeny starting their journey south for the winter, but it would be lovely to think that they might have spread their breeding range to the southern outskirts of Marlborough.
This was my personal bird of the month, and thanks to all of my team for not being able to make the session, so I could ring it with a clear conscience.
Mind, it was a close run thing: on the 17th of this month I ringed my seventh ever Redstart and the first ever at the Whitworth Building side of Blakehill Farm. Then, on the 28th of July we caught another one on the opposite side of Blakehill, which Laura pulled rank on Adam to ring (Mothers are allowed to do that to sons). I have never caught two in the same month before. Hopefully we will get a few more over the autumn migration.
As well as those catches, we had an early Meadow Pipit and Whinchat. This is only the third Meadow Pipit that we have caught in July and they have all been caught in the Imber Valley area of SPTA. Similarly, the only Whinchat that have been caught in July are in the same area. This is only the sixth: one in 2017 and four in 2021. One tends to presume early migrants, although this one was also a juvenile. I cannot think of a reason why they wouldn’t be nesting on the Plain, so I contacted Jack Daw. He spends his summers monitoring nests on Salisbury Plain, and has been doing so for decades. He has confirmed to me that, although he doesn’t find huge numbers, he does regularly find nests out there. Nice to know.
Missing from the catch this month were: Canada Goose, Corn Bunting, Jackdaw, Nuthatch, Tawny Owl, Tree Pipit and Woodpigeon. I am never going to miss not catching Canada Geese! The Tawny Owl doesn’t really count either, as it was an Oak & Furrows rescue. As for the Nuthatch: I cannot understand how we didn’t manage to catch any in the Firs yesterday: they were all over the place. Last year’s singleton was caught in Red Lodge, but we didn’t actually get a decent session in at Red Lodge last month. After rain in the morning put us off, we did try an evening session but, apart from great company, we only had six birds, with no sign of a Nuthatch.
There were some significant increases in a number of species: Andy’s back garden continues to produce huge numbers of Starling! Of the 83 caught, 77 were caught by Andy from the comfort of his own home. Three from my garden and three at Blakehill on Sunday. I might have got more from my garden but having a rat problem at the moment, so not wanting to leave food out. It was good to see a large increase in the number of Long-tailed Tits. It was our best catch since 2020 and well distributed across our sites. The 2020 number was rather boosted by my catching 21 of them in one session in my garden, just as lockdown was ending. It was one of the most memorable catches I have ever had, with them flying into the nets whilst I am stood there taking them out!
There was a welcome increase in the numbers of both Blackcap and Garden Warbler, even if of different orders of magnitude. Similarly, we had a nice increase in Willow Warblers: last year four were also from the Imber Valley, this year Langford Lakes was the primary site, with six, but they were well spread across the group’s sites.
A good catch of Chaffinch: mainly down to a big catch at Jonny’s East Tytherton site. At the same site last year there were just two! Again, they were spread across all of our sites.
Jonny also had the most surprising catch of the month. At one of the sites where he is monitoring nest boxes, he was contacted by the farmer: a Buzzard chick had fallen from its nest. Having checked it over and ascertained that it was uninjured, he ringed it and they put it back in the nest! The first Buzzard chick any of us have ringed within the group since before the split: the previous one being ringed in June 2007!
Jonny has continued with this cracking work on nest boxes and Swallows. My month for checking boxes and Swallow nests was rather scuppered by a back problem, so all of the Swallow chicks were done by Jonny. I was able to get out, with the help of my team, to ring the Barn Owl chicks. Well, they ringed the chicks, I just “supervised”.
Anyway, a good month: it is beginning to get interesting with migrants beginning to arrive: we even had a decent catch in a woodland yesterday! Here’s for many more.
Ringing In The Braydon Forest & Beyond 