For the first time in ages the weather was calm enough for me to set nets in my garden, so I thought I would take advantage. I set the nets around my feeding stations. Pole A had a peanut feeder, a fat ball feeder and two mealworm trays; pole B had two Sunflower Heart feeders, a mealworm tray and a half coconut shell filled with fat and minced peanuts. The trees are as follows: i = Apple; ii = Plum; iii = Crab Apple; iv = Conifer; v = Holly; vi = Cherry. The rest of the area is full of shrubs, herbs and flowers, a magnet for moths and other insects.
I set the following nets (all 5-Shelf singles): 1 = 6m; 2 = 3m; 3 = 9m.
I had set the nets up the night before and opened them at 6:30. Between then and 10:00 I saw one bird in the garden: a Woodpigeon, and caught none. I caught my first birds at 11:00 two Blackbirds and two Goldfinch. That was followed by a juvenile Chaffinch at 11:45; a Goldfinch at 12:10; three Starlings: one each at 12:15; 13:00 and 13:30. This memorable morning was topped off with a final Goldfinch. One of the Blackbirds was a three year old retrapped female. All of the rest were new birds. Besides the Chaffinch, two of the Starlings were also juveniles.
The first Starling out of the net was a beautifully marked adult male. Astonishingly, it was absolutely quiet and calm during extraction and processing. The first juvenile made a bit of noise but the third was very loud. Interestingly, though, there was an absolute cacophony of Starling shouts and calls whilst I was extracting it. It was a bit like a scene from the Hitchcock film “The Birds”, with a dozen or more sat on the adjacent telephone wires shouting at me until I released junior. Once it joined them, they all flew off away from the garden in their little flock.
So a less than stunning catch of Blackbird 1(1); Goldfinch 4; Chaffinch [1]; Starling 1[2]. 6 adults ringed from 3 species, 3 juveniles from 2 species and 1 retrap, making 10 birds processed from 4 species.
With all that time on my hands between catches I spent a delightful hour net mending (he lied – delightful it is not) and it is nice to have decent coffee on tap! Anyway, it is my worst ever garden catch, who knows why! I regularly have 30+ birds from seven or eight species in the garden: Great Spotted Woodpecker; Woodpigeon, Stock Dove, Collared Dove, Rook, Jackdaw, Magpie, Greenfinch, Wren, Blue Tit, Great Tit and Long-tailed Tit have been in pretty regularly recently, feeding well and costing me a fortune. Less often during this time of year: Goldcrest, Green Woodpecker and Sparrowhawk. One in a blue moon: Grey Heron.
Ringing In The Braydon Forest & Beyond 