What happens when you put the wrong date in your diary? The Swindon Wellbeing group, run by the Wiltshire Wildlife Trust, meets on a Tuesday. Having entertained them at Somerford Common on the 15th January, I was asked if I could arrange some other Tuesday sessions and opted for Ravensroost Wood in February and Lower Moor Farm in March. Unfortunately, I transposed the dates and went to Ravensroost Wood this morning, expecting them to turn up. It was only when the expected arrival time passed and there was no sign of them that I checked my emails to find I had got there a week early! Oh well: I will be back there next Tuesday, but will choose a different part of the wood: a part I have been meaning to try out for some time but haven’t got around to.
I was joined for the morning by Laura and we set a variant of the usual nets for the feeding station area, as there was just the two of us:
It was a fairly predictable session: lots of Blue Tits, a few Great Tits and not a lot else. One of the interesting things about Blue Tits in our last couple of catches has been ratio of adult to first winter birds ringed. Prior to this month there has been quite a lot of discussion amongst ringers on the closed Facebook group about how different the adult to first winter ratio had become compared to what we are used to. Normally one expects the number of first winter birds to far exceed the number of adults but it certainly wasn’t the case for a lot of ringers. Many reporting that adults were outnumbering juveniles. It wasn’t quite so drastic in the Braydon Forest woodlands. Between the 1st November and the 31st January we ringed 124 Blue Tits of which 43 were adult and 81 were first winter: one third adult to two-thirds first winter birds. However, come February and things have certainly changed significantly: we have ringed 42 Blue Tits, 8 adults and 34 first winter birds. Under one-fifth are adults.
It really has been a winter without finches in the woodlands: we had five Lesser Redpoll before Christmas but none so far this year, nor have we had any Siskin either before or since Christmas. Even Chaffinch we have only had six this winter. Last winter we had 35, and the average over the last 12 winters is 39 of them. Perhaps we will get 33 in the next six weeks! It is most unusual.
We were joined for a couple of hours by Rob. He came along to a few taster sessions in 2022 but work got in the way and he couldn’t take it any further. With a little more time on his hands nowadays, he has managed to fit in a couple of visits, and today ringed a bird: the only Robin we managed to catch today.
Today’s list was: Blue Tit 13(3); Great Tit 3(3); Coal Tit (1); Marsh Tit (1); Robin 1; Song Thrush 1; Goldcrest 1. Totals: 19 birds ringed from 5 species and 8 birds retrapped from 4 species, making 27 birds processed from 7 species.
It wasn’t the most exciting session we have had, but it was enjoyable nevertheless. There were quite a few people dog walking today, and every single one had their pooches on leads. Astonishing! I suspect they were just trying to keep them out of the mud, which was horrendous.
At 11:00 a cloud rather decided to drop in on our ringing station, and it got a bit damp, so we closed the nets, extracted and processed the last few birds, and then took down, leaving site at about 12:15. Absent from our list this morning was Nuthatch: one of which was flying around our ringing area, calling for all it was worth, whist we were taking the nets down. I think it was taunting us!
Ringing In The Braydon Forest & Beyond 