With the weather forecast for it to be dry and windy, with gusts up to 26mph, coming from the north-east, I decided that we had to be inside Webb’s Wood, rather than trying my new site just to the south of the wood. I will get there one day, fourth time lucky! I was joined by Laura, Adam and Ellie. We met at 6:30 and set the following nets:
It was definitely a weird session: just three birds caught and processed between 7:30 and 8:45. Then we had 41 between 8:45 and 10:00, and then nothing until 11:00. The weather was also weird. It was cloudy, as forecast. It was windy, from the north-east, as forecast, but it also produced regular periods of light drizzle, interspersed with the sun trying to break through, before clouding over again, completely against the forecast. The thing is, though, this unforecast odd weather coincided with our periods of catching birds.
Anyway, it was a decent catch. Every bird caught was a juvenile except for one of the Blue Tits and the retrapped Chiffchaff. The catch was: Blue Tit 11; Great Tit 3; Long-tailed Tit 2; Wren 4; Robin 3; Song Thrush 1; Blackcap 9; Chiffchaff 7(1); Willow Warbler 1; Goldcrest 2. Totals: 43 birds ringed from 10 species and 1 retrapped bird, making 44 birds processed from 10 species.
After an hour from 10:00, with three empty rounds, we decided to close the nets and take down. Between us, it did not take long to get everything packed away and we were off-site by 11:30 and home for an early lunch.
It was an enjoyable session, even though there were no stunners in the catch. Catching our third Willow Warbler of the year was rather good – as we catch very few in Webb’s Wood. However, this year we have caught and processed 26 Chiffchaffs. That is our largest ever catch of them in Webb’s Wood. What is more, 16 of those have been caught during the May to July period inclusive, the breeding season, if you like, with a further eight today. All of our other larger catches have been in April, either on passage or setting up territory.
Ringing In The Braydon Forest & Beyond 