Another extremely good month for the group: with some special catches and a new site that looks promising.
Added to the list for this month compared to 2023 are: Coal Tit, Hobby, Linnet, Meadow Pipit, Nightjar, Reed Bunting and Stonechat. Missing from the list were: Great Spotted Woodpecker, Green Woodpecker, Mute Swan, Red Kite, Sparrowhawk, Spotted Flycatcher, Stock Dove, Tawny Owl and Woodpigeon. Of those missing from this list, the Sparrowhawk and the Red Kite were processed at the RSPCA Oak & Furrows rehab centre, so weren’t wild caught. So, if we strike those two off, we have the same number of species but with differences.
The average numbers per session are pretty similar with, on average, 1.6 more birds ringed per session and 2.2 more birds processed per session.
Birds where we had significantly higher catches than in August last year were: Blackbird (22 to 13); Blackcap (172 to 131); Chiffchaff (215 to 176); Goldcrest (29 to 7, 20 of them on my sites); Goldfinch (42 to 25); Nuthatch (15 to 1, all on my sites); Robin (96 to 78) and Sedge Warbler (42 to 28). Significant reductions were fewer: House Sparrow (2 to 19) and Whitethroat (54 to 95).
The highlights have to be:
Our first Hobby, Falco subbuteo, caught and processed at the Wiltshire Wildlife Trust reserve at Langford Lakes by Jonny Cooper. Photo courtesy of Justine Hadfield. Prior to the split, one was caught and ringed at Swindon Sewage Works in July 2009.
This is closely followed by three of these:
Nightjar, Caprimulgus europaeus, photo courtesy Dr Ian Grier.
Since 2020 Ian Grier and Andy Palmer have caught eight of them, all on Salisbury Plain training area, six of them in the Imber Valley area. All bar one has been caught in August, and this is the second time that three have been caught in the same month. It also happened in 2022.
For me, the highlight has to be the fifteen Nuthatches: all caught in my sites, with the 15th coming in my new site, Gospel Oak Farm, on the 31st. Prior to that, the most the group has caught in August is 10. The only months that the group has caught more were in March (16) and December (17) 2017: both were with the aid of supplementary feeding stations, whereas this catch was purely as a result of the right nest in the right place at the right time.
An excellent month, our second best ever August. Let’s hope that September follows suit!
Ringing In The Braydon Forest & Beyond 