Things did not start well: we arrived on site by the Whitworth Building at Blakehill Farm to find two bulls in our usual field. Fortunately, the next field along was bull free and the adjoining gate shut, so we decided to set the nets in that next field. We had tried a couple of nets in there before, with little success, so I wasn’t too hopeful.
Anyway, I was joined by Laura, Adam, David, Ellie and Mark came along to help with the setting up and taking down. We met at 7:00 and set the following nets:
I extracted a Wren from ride 1 as the first bird out, as usual, whilst I was putting out the lures. The lures really had an instant impact, with rides 2 and, in particular, ride 3. A nice little catch of Long-tailed Tit, Chiffchaff, Goldcrest, Robin, Great Tit and Blue Tit.
Then disaster, we finished processing these birds and got to the end of the AA string. I went to my ring box: no AA rings! I cannot believe that I had made such an egregious error! What did it cost our catch: five Chiffchaff, one Goldcrest, six Long-tailed Tit, one Treecreeper and two Wrens: 15 birds from 5 species.
Despite that, we did end up with a reasonable catch, with one memorable highlight:
Apologies for the quality of the next photo, as my phone camera decided to focus on my rucksack and not the bird. However, it shows clearly how we could identify that this bird is a juvenile:
The feathers P1 and P2 have a dull, dark grey border. In the adult they are equivalent in colour to P3, and the extent of the white extends much further down the feather towards the tip.
That was pretty much the end of the catching for the morning. The next two rounds, at 10:50 and 11:10 were both empty, so we decided to close up and take down.
The list for the day was: Magpie 1; Blue Tit 11(1); Great Tit 3; Long-tailed Tit 8; Dunnock 1; Wren 1; Robin 2; Chiffchaff 2; Goldcrest 3. Totals: 32 birds ringed from 9 species and 1 retrap, making 33 birds processed from 9 species.
Of course, without my incompetence that would have been 47 birds processed from 10 species. Anyway, it wasn’t a bad catch, we were off-site just after midday and, now, I am off to order some more rings!!
Ringing In The Braydon Forest & Beyond 