Bjork time as in “It’s oh so quiet!”: it seems that the feeding flocks of resident birds have dispersed, presumably to focus on setting up breeding territories and attract a mate; the winter visitors have left, heading north to their summer breeding grounds, and our summer visitors are arriving, but not in any great numbers. The bird feeders are still up but clearly not as attractive as they were! I topped up the feeders at Somerford Common on Thursday morning: the peanut feeder was half emptied but the seed feeder had barely been touched. Clearly no longer needed so they will all be down by the end of next week.
Anyway, I was joined by Rosie, Laura, Adam and Ellie at 6:30. It was great that Rosie could stay for the whole session this morning. We set the usual nets, plus I tried one additional net in front of a stand of conifers:
Unlike Wednesday, when we started with nine birds in the first round, raising our expectations before dashing them, this one started as it intended to go on: just three birds. All Great Tits: two new and a retrap.
Thereafter, every round produced only a couple of birds. There were some nice surprises: a male and female Goldcrest caught adjacent to each other in the net. We wondered if they were a pair, so we released them after processing, and they flew off together, so quite possibly a pair.
Having spent the second part of our recent ringing demonstration at the Firs muttering about wanting to catch Treecreepers, and failing to do so, two Treecreepers caught adjacent to each other in the nets this morning was satisfying for me. They turned out to be two males, not a pair, but nice to have.
A five year-old Marsh Tit was a real surprise. However, looking up his number, that is the twelfth time we have actually caught this individual! With the exception of the year it was ringed and 2022, it has been caught at least three times every year.
Having said “it’s oh so quiet” that was actually overturned on our last two rounds: at 9:30 we took a male Great Spotted Woodpecker out of the nets! There is no louder bird in the woodlands than one of these. We then didn’t catch anything for an hour, whereupon we caught a second! Every bit as loud and shrieking as the first.
Laura had to leave at 10:00, as she is playing in a concert in Malmesbury this evening, and the rest of the morning and afternoon were scheduled for final practice / rehearsal. Mark arrived to chauffeur Adam home at the end of the session.
Despite not catching any this morning, there were a few Blackcap singing in the surrounding woodland, and plenty of Chiffchaffs claiming their territories. Hopefully we will get a few of each in our future catches.
The list for the session was: Great Spotted Woodpecker 2; Treecreeper 2; Great Tit 6(2); Marsh Tit (1); Chiffchaff 2; Goldcrest 2. Totals: 14 birds ringed from 5 species and 3 birds retrapped from 2 species, making 17 birds processed from 6 species.
One thing to note: this is the first time that I can remember that we have run three full session without catching a single Blue Tit!
With nothing caught in the next couple of rounds after the Great Spotted Woodpeckers, we took down and were packed away and off-site soon after 11:15.
Ringing In The Braydon Forest & Beyond 