We had to postpone our session from yesterday because of rain. Fortunately my mid-week team of Laura, Miranda and Ellie could all make this morning and I think we are all pretty pleased that we did. We met at 7:00 and went back to our usual feeding station area. That was mainly because the entrance gate is broken open and Miranda beat me to site and, because she hasn’t been with us at the recently used rides, she went to the area she knew. In the event it was very fortunate!
We set the following nets:
We had the nets open by 8:00 and started extracting straight away. The obligatory Wren flew into net 2 before it was open! They really are the most frequently caught bird in the nets before they are opened, followed by Robin.
It was nice to have a regular flow of birds. The first round proper produced six birds: a Blackcap, Coal Tit, two Goldcrest, a Great Tit and our 22nd Marsh Tit of the year! Looking good for them this year! Next round was a single Coal Tit, but the next three rounds produced 14, 14 and 20 respectively. The third of those produced another two Marsh Tit juveniles: up to 24, really hoping for 30+ this year. The make up of those catches was interesting: in the first round of 14 we caught eight Long-tailed Tits and three Goldcrests. Our next round of 14 was bulked out by another five Goldcrest and the round of 20 was down to 10 Blue Tits and 5 Great Tits.
Two rounds later, with no disrespect to our Marsh Tits, we caught the highlights of the session:
October is the earliest that we have ever caught Redpoll in Webb’s Wood. Across the Braydon Forest, apart from two juveniles caught in Ravensroost Meadows in August 2016, October is the earliest month in which we catch them.
The list for the session was: Blue Tit 21(2); Great Tit 10(1); Coal Tit 5; Marsh Tit 3; Long-tailed Tit 8; Wren 3; Robin 2; Blackbird 1; Blackcap 1; Chiffchaff 2; Goldcrest 13; Redpoll 2. Totals: 71 birds ringed from 12 species and 3 birds retrapped from 2 species, making 74 birds processed from 12 species. This is our largest catch in Webb’s Wood, with or without a feeding station in place, since August 2018. Prior to that we did have two sessions that were larger, but they were due to the provision of supplementary feed. I haven’t set any feeding stations yet this year as the weather is decent and there is still plenty of wild food available.
We emptied and closed the nets at 11:45. Processed the last seven birds and then we had everything packed away and were off site by 12:30 after a very satisfying session.
Ringing In The Braydon Forest & Beyond 