Another pretty decent month. Given how bad the weather was, we did well to get out as much as we did. So far I have only set up one feeding station, so I was quite pleased with my little group’s results. Ironically, that with the feeding station, Somerford Common, delivered fewer birds from fewer species than before I set the station up. Before feeding station: 48 birds from 13 species; after feeding station: 46 birds from 9 species. Perhaps I should save myself £100+ and not bother with supplementary feeding!
The list from this month was:
Added to the list compared to November 2023 was: Blackcap, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Jay, Siskin, Stonechat and Tree Sparrow. The addition of Tree Sparrow is down to Jonny having taken over monitoring Zeal’s Airfield for the Tree Sparrow project and expanding the activity at the site. Our, presumably over-wintering, Blackcap was caught at Jonny’s Sutton Benger site. Blackcaps in November are never very common at our sites: one or two only each November since 2013, with none last year or in 2014 and 2015.
The three Stonechat were caught at three different sites: Blakehill Farm in the north, Jonny’s East Tytherton site mid-Wiltshire and Andy’s SPTA site further south on the Imber Ranges. With regard to Great Spotted Woodpecker, we haven’t ringed any since June! My group haven’t ringed any since March, so it was nice to get one at Somerford Common (probably attracted by the peanuts). That said, we are on track to match recent year’s catches. The Siskin was caught at Langford Lakes. This is only the second caught there since the group came into its current structure in January 2013, the first being back in March of this year. Prior to that, one was caught in March 2011 by Rob: a gap of 13 years for the bird at the site!
Missing from the list this year were Kingfisher, Linnet and Starling. The Linnets last year were caught, three at Andy’s Imber Ranges site and three at my Brown’s Farm site. I have only managed one visit to Brown’s this year. The tenancy for the farmer I was working with was terminated in September. The landowner plans to farm it themselves from now on and I am in discussion about getting continued access to the site. The previous tenant actually owns the farm next door and he has offered for us to ring there. I need to get see it and evaluate the possibilities. The Kingfishers were caught, one at Lower Moor Farm and two at Jonny’s Sutton Benger site. Neither delivered this month. Numbers caught at Lower Moor have declined significantly since 2021, with five processed that year but just singles since then and none so far in 2024. The lack of Starlings is almost entirely down to my not carrying out any ringing in my garden as six of those caught last year were there!
There were some fluctuations in numbers: Redwing and Long-tailed Tit up; Goldcrest and Lesser Redpoll down. The Lesser Redpoll is a surprise as last year’s catch were fairly evenly spread between Ravensroost Wood, Somerford Common and Webb’s Wood. We didn’t have a Webb’s session this month but one at Ravensroost and two at Somerford should have delivered one or two, instead it was just the one at Somerford Common.
As a side note, we have already surpassed last year’s total, closing in on 11,500 birds from 73 species. Hopefully we will have a really good December as well.
Ringing In The Braydon Forest & Beyond 