To Red Lodge this morning, having moved from our winter station to our summer station:
I was joined by Miranda and Ellie at 6:30 and we set the following nets:
It isn’t our most productive April site by a long way, averaging 18.6 birds per session in the wood. However, it was next on the schedule, and it would be churlish to ignore it.
There was a lot of birdsong, but they were clearly staying up in the trees, declaring their territories. We actually didn’t catch anything until 8:45, when we caught a Blackcap, a Blackbird and a Wren. The next time we caught anything was at 9:30, and we were encouraged, as we had nine birds from five species. Then we were disappointed as we didn’t catch anything again until 10:30, whereupon we caught another six birds. That was it: the end of the catch. We gave it three more goes but, when the third, at 11:30, was also empty, we closed the nets and took down.
The list for the morning was: Nuthatch (1); Treecreeper 1; Blue Tit 2(4); Great Tit (2); Wren 2; Robin 1; Blackbird 1; Blackcap 2; Chiffchaff 2. Totals: 11 birds ringed from 7 species and 7 birds retrapped from 3 species, making 18 birds processed from 9 species. So: bang on average for the site in April! It would have been 20, but we had two escape the net before they could be extracted.
Finally, sexing the Blue Tits has become a lot easier: the females have well developed brood patches. One was actually showing the blood vessel engorgement associated with brooding eggs and, later, young. In fact, all of the sexually monomorphic species were easily sexed today.
To be fair, it was a lovely morning. We were sheltered from the direct sunlight and could sit and listen to so much bird song. The absolute highlight was my first Cuckoo of the year. He spent the entire morning circling around the wood calling out his name!
Having packed up we were away from site by 12:30: quiet but pleasant (and a lot better than our session just over the road at Gospel Oak Farm a couple of sessions ago!).
Ringing In The Braydon Forest & Beyond 