Back to the muddiest site that we have this winter. I keep going back in the hope that we might catch a Redpoll, Siskin, Brambling or two. Once again, we were disappointed on that. However, it was a very enjoyable session. I was joined from the start by Rosie, Laura and Adam, plus new potential team member, Ellie, coming along for her first taster session. It was a very cold, very foggy start. Nevertheless, the forecast was for it to lift and for the sun to break through, so I was happy to get set up and run the session. The sun didn’t break through until 9:30 but, after that, the fog cleared quickly and the sun was very welcome and very warming.
We started setting the usual nets. I then got a distress call from Justine and Mark, from the Salisbury Plain Raptor Group, who were also scheduled to join us for the morning. They had got lost in the fog! I told them to find a landmark and let me know what it was: not easy when the mobile signals in rural Wiltshire as so, so bad! Anyway, they let me know where they were and I went to their rescue and led them to site, whilst the rest of the team continued to set our nets:
We had the nets open before 8:00 but it seems that the birds don’t like moving around much in freezing fog any more than people do! It took a while to get going, but eventually we started to catch. The start was promising: first birds out of the nets was a new female Nuthatch, two retrapped Robins and a new male Blackbird. Rosie got to ring the Nuthatch and process one of the Robins before heading off to work.
Naturally, we started catching at the feeding station area, net rides 1 to 4, first. Rides 5 and 6, which used to be such busy nets were, yet again, very, very quiet. They produced the two Long-tailed Tits that we processed but, apart from them, just a Wren that decided to get itself trapped again after we had just finished processing it for the first time.
There was good variety in the catch and the list for the session was: Nuthatch 1(2); Treecreeper 1; Blue Tit 4(4); Great Tit 2(2); Coal Tit 1(2); Marsh Tit (2); Long-tailed Tit 1(1); Wren 1; Robin 1(3); Blackbird 1; Chiffchaff 1; Goldcrest 1; Chaffinch 3. Totals:18 birds ringed from 12 species and 16 birds retrapped from 7 species, making 34 birds processed from 13 species.
We are having a really good start to the year for Nuthatch at Somerford Common: eight processed already. The most we have ever processed there in an entire year is 12. We look to be well on course to surpass that. Since I started working at Somerford, back in 2012, we have only processed more than that in four of the 11 full years. It is our best site for the species, so it will be interesting to see how the rest of the year develops.
It was nice not to be overwhelmed by Blue and Great Tits, and to get 13 species at this time of year is very pleasing. We did have the first Somerford Chiffchaff of the year, but no sign yet of any other summer species.
We had been joined part way through the session by Mark, Laura’s husband, and their friend, Alex, so when we decided to pack up at 11:45 it took very little time for us to clear away and get off site, which we managed by 12:20. I am pleased to say that Ellie enjoyed her first taster session and will be joining me again very soon.
So that is three early morning starts in a row for me this week: tomorrow I have scheduled a long lie-in!
Ringing In The Braydon Forest & Beyond 