With the weather forecast from every source saying that there would be a low breeze, with some gusting, coming from the south-east, I decided to go to the western side of Blakehill Farm, by the Whitworth building. When I say every source, I mean: weather.com; MeteoBlue; xcweather and the Met Office: they all forecast the same thing. I was joined by David, Ellie, Laura, Adam and Mark. We met at 6:30 and set the following nets, knowing that they would be sheltered from the prevailing wind by hedgerows, trees and buildings:
The breeze didn’t get up until after we had the nets open by 7:30: and then it came from the north! Net 5 blew out straight away, so we shut it after round two, as the billowing completely opened out the pockets. Fortunately, the other nets were a bit better protected and we managed to keep going for a couple of hours before the wind got up too much and we decided to wind up the session: hence the punning title to this piece.
Unfortunately, the wind made the nets visible and the catch was low, but there was a decent variety: Blue Tit 2; Wren (1); Dunnock 2(1); Robin 3; Redwing 1; Song Thrush 1; Blackbird 2; Chiffchaff 3(1); Goldcrest 1; House Sparrow 2. Totals: 20 birds ringed from 9 species and 3 birds retrapped from 3 species, making 20 birds processed from 10 species.
It was a pleasant enough session but, after a couple of empty rounds, and the wind showing no signs of changing, we shut the nets and took down at about 10:30.
It was good to catch our first two House Sparrow of the year. They are regular in my garden – but equally regular in avoiding my nets! Blakehill Farm is the only site that I have caught them at with any regularity. This is my first session there this year, and we caught two: a male and a female. Our fourth Redwing and third Song Thrush of 2025 were also nice to haves. Prior to this morning’s session we had caught three Chiffchaff, so another four was also good to have. The retrapped Chiffchaff was originally ringed at Blakehill last April.
On Wednesday we will be trying for a session on the plateau at Blakehill – hoping for a few early migrants. Fingers crossed!
Ringing In The Braydon Forest & Beyond 