Today was a bit of a risk: last time at Red Lodge we only caught six birds. They were two Song Thrushes, two Robins, a Wren and Long-tailed Tit. That session, though, was early evening and more of a social event than a full ringing session.
This morning’s session was a more usual profile, although I was being “childminder” for Laura’s boys, Daniel and Adam. (I am licensed by the BTO for working with children, and have the enhanced DBS certification from the government agency.) I was also joined by Miranda and Steph, with Steph’s daughter, Bea. We set up the usual nets for this wood at this time of year: along the main track with two side rides:
We met up at 7:00 (ish) and set the nets, with Laura’s help as well, before she had to rush off for her appointment. We had the nets open just after 8:00, but had to wait until 8:45 until we caught our first bird: a Robin.
At this time of year I expect to catch at least 30 to 40 birds in a woodland session, at least half of which will consist of Blue and Great Tits. So the first unusual thing about this morning’s session was that we did not catch a single Blue or Great Tit.
The next unusual thing was that Robin was our commonest bird in the catch, with nine of them. Now, we did catch ten Robins on Saturday in the Firs – but that was in a catch of 99 birds. This catch was just 22 birds! We have caught nine Robins in a single session once before, in August 2016 in Red Lodge, but, again, that was in a catch of 85 birds.
And then there were the Nuthatches: we caught five: four new and one retrap. The most that we have ever caught in Red Lodge before is three: on eight occasions, only one of which was when we didn’t have feeding stations set up. Overall, this month to date has been remarkable for Nuthatch: we have ringed nine and processed two retraps. Only in 2017, in December with feeding station set up, have we caught more: 11 ringed and 1 retrap: but we still have 10 days and two Braydon Forest sessions to go this month.
Finally, we caught four Goldcrests: not unusual to catch larger numbers in this wood, but we have only caught Goldcrest in Red Lodge in August on three previous occasions: 2016, 2017 and 2020. The first was just one bird, the other two were the same size as today’s catch.
The catch for the day was: Nuthatch 2[2](1); Treecreeper [1]; Marsh Tit [1]; Long-tailed Tit [1]; Robin 2[7]; Blackcap 1; Goldcrest [4]. Totals: 5 adults ringed from 3 species, 16 juveniles ringed from 6 species and one retrap, making 22 birds processed from 7 species.
Usually I would have expected Blue Tits, Great Tits and Wrens to boost these numbers up to the 40 bird mark: my expected size for the catch. I suppose the upside is that we did not get pecked consistently when handling the birds!
We decided to pack up at 11:30, had everything away by 12:15, and were off-site by 12:30.
Ringing In The Braydon Forest & Beyond 