Just our best month ever. Prior to this month our best ever single month was in September 2023, with 1,802 birds processed. This month we have broken the 2,000 mark. As usual. most of this is down to Jonny’s efforts. He does seem to have discovered some seriously productive new sites: particularly two sites just to the west of New Zealand (a village in Wiltshire, he hasn’t emigrated)! One is a highly productive woodland, the other is a boggy patch surrounded by hedgerows and trees. Mind, it seems every site he discovers turns out to be highly productive. Unfortunately, my contribution this month was considerably lower than I wanted, with five sessions cancelled for a variety of reasons.
This was the catch for the month:
Added to the list compared to this time last year were Firecrest, Garden Warbler, Kestrel, Magpie, Mallard, Skylark and Woodpigeon. Missing from the list this year were: any pulli, House Martin, Linnet, Moorhen, Pied Wagtail, Stock Dove and Tree Pipit. The complete lack of Swallow, after 182 ringed and 4 retrapped last year, was perhaps the most surprising. There were also significant falls in the numbers of Goldfinch and Reed Bunting. The number of Meadow Pipits were also much lower than usual. That is almost all down to our failure to catch them at our normal levels at Blakehill Farm with just two caught in the month. Not that there weren’t plenty around: we saw plenty, sitting on the top strands of the net or on the poles, but not coming down to the ground to get caught.
Where there was a huge increase was in both Blue and Great Tits, Blackcaps and the astonishing catch of 530 Chiffchaff: over 200 more than in any other single month, and we are already at over 1,200 for the year. Last year, our previous best year, was over 200 fewer than we have caught so far this year, with the chance to add another 200 or so before the end of the year.
Smaller numbers but nice increases in Greenfinch, Whitethroat and Willow Warbler. Jonny added two more Skylark to our list: taking the total to just 14 since 2013. Actually, we only started to catch any since 2019, and have had between 1 and 4 every year since, except 2022.
The Kestrel catches were nice: since 2015 we have caught one fledged Kestrel per year, with 2019 missing out but, so far this year, we have caught 3. My team’s was, predictably, at Blakehill Farm, Jonny’s was at the same farm near Hilmarton where he caught one last month.
Three Firecrest in one month is our best ever catch. Although we have had a total of 18, it is usually one per year, with two in 2015, until last year when we caught three: one in April and two in October. So far this year we have caught five: one in April, one last month and three this month! (Little bit of egotism: my sites have produced 11 of the 18 the group have caught, although Jonny caught all three of this month’s cohort, each in a different site.)
A quite brilliant month all round.
Ringing In The Braydon Forest & Beyond 