It has been a very frustrating couple of weeks. In between having to replace my car, followed by some abysmal weather: if it wasn’t raining, it was blowing a gale, I haven’t managed to get out for one of my ringing sessions since 22nd May at the Firs – and that wasn’t the best session we have ever had, it was just good to get out. The forecast for today was for it to be dry but for it to have steadily increasing base speed and much higher gusts, gusts reaching 30mph by midday. I chose Webb’s Wood because the wind was forecast to be a westerly. Ravensroost Wood was scheduled for today but all of the rides there run west to east, whereas at Webb’s I can set the nets along some north – south rides. They got the forecast pretty well right, but the wind didn’t start getting up until just after 10:00.
I was joined by David, Ellie, Laura, Adam and Mark. I decided that we would have a lie-in and start at 6:30. Upon arrival we did find that the supporting gate post had broken off at the base: it looked rotten, rather than vandalised. Perhaps someone backed a car into it accidentally, as many do park in front of the access gate:
We set the following nets:
The first round gave us a false sense of security: a couple of juvenile Great Tits, a juvenile Chiffchaff and two adult male and one juvenile Blackcap. Unfortunately, it then went very quiet, with a couple of birds here, a couple there for the next two hours. I was getting a little despondent by 9:30, so I said to the team that we would give it until 10:30 and if it wasn’t any better we would pack up early.
To be fair, it was a nice catch as most of what we were catching were juvenile Chiffchaffs: our first of the year!
In that early round we also caught our first Blackcap of the year. We ended up with two.
Ride 1 did not catch a thing all session, which was disappointing as, last time I used it, it caught well. Also, ride 2 was catching absolutely nothing so, after that somewhat defeatist discussion, I got the nets moved from the left-hand side of the ride to the right-hand side. Astonishingly, that simple manoeuvre produced good results.
The first good thing in that net was: having had our second ever Garden Warbler in Webb’s Wood at our 10th May session, today we had our third. This time, a juvenile. There is something definitely unusual happening with Garden Warblers this year. I don’t know when they started arriving back but this is our second juvenile of the year: our first being ridiculously early in Ravensroost Wood on 18th May.
The second was this:
Our first juvenile Marsh Tit of the year, caught in the net alongside an adult female with a well-developed brood patch. Mum, perhaps? It is looking rather good for Braydon Forest Marsh Tits this year. So far we have ringed 12 and retrapped 23. This is how it compares with the first full six months of each preceding year since I started ringing in the Braydon Forest:
This year has started extremely well for my keynote species. This juvenile is the earliest that we have ever caught and ringed (okay, let’s not get carried away: only by one day, from two caught and ringed in 2022 at Ravensroost Wood).
These were followed by another juvenile Chaffinch, carrying on from the two caught in the previous session in the Firs. With the wind getting up at 10:30, and some nets starting to billow, we decided to shut the nets after our 11:30 round.
The list for the day was: Adult [Juvenile](Retraps): Blue Tit [1]; Great Tit [4]; Marsh Tit 1[1]; Robin [3]; Blackcap 2[2](1); Garden Warbler [1]; Chiffchaff 1[8](1). Totals: 4 adults ringed from 3 species, 21 juveniles ringed from 7 species and 2 retraps from 2 species, making 27 birds processed from 7 species.
The irony of this morning’s session was that the dominant species singing all around us was Willow Warbler and we didn’t catch a single one! It was rather good to see a decent group of about 20 Swifts flying overhead
We had lots of very pleasant interactions with the public this morning: more people with their dogs on leads than I ever see in the nature reserves where they are supposed to be on leads. The friendliest French Bulldog we have ever met. Her name was Lily and she wouldn’t let her owner pull her away until she had been stroked and petted by every one of us! It was a lovely morning and, with the six of us to take down and pack away we were off site around about midday.
Ringing In The Braydon Forest & Beyond 