With the rather decent catches we have had recently in the Firs and Webb’s Wood, and realising that I hadn’t been to Red Lodge for quite a long time, we decided to give it a go this morning. Unfortunately, recent catches have not been as good as I would have liked, but hoped that we might catch the odd feeding flock of titmice, an earl Redwing or add another Redpoll or two.
I was joined by Miranda, Ellie and, after the school run, Laura and we set the usual summer nets. Whilst the forecast was for it to be cloudy but dry, it was horribly damp, with patches of mizzle. We had a brief discussion and agreed that we would continue with the session. It was weird for the first two hours or so: it would dry up for 30 minutes, interspersed with 10 minutes of mizzle. It finally dried up but then we had the trees dropping the water from their foliage.
Unfortunately, I think the weather put the birds off, and it was horribly quiet, There were very few birds flying around and very little calling. A couple of calls from a Great Spotted Woodpecker whilst we were setting up the nets, but that was all we saw or heard of it all morning.
The catching was very slow and, frustratingly, we had half-a-dozen birds bounce off the nets, or manage to extract themselves before we could get to them. Ellie had to leave at 9:45 to get to work, having had the chance to process just a Chiffchaff and a Great Tit. Our rounds were: 1, 2, 1, 3, 3, 1: just 11 birds caught between 9:00 and 11:00, when we decided enough was enough and decided to pack up.
We did have an interesting Goldcrest: I knew from the ring number that it was an adult but its tail feathers (rectrices) contained a number of pointed feathers, hard to know if they were retained juvenile feathers or worn adult feathers, but there was no sign of moult anywhere:
One final moment that brightened the morning: as we started taking down the last net set our third Redpoll of the autumn flew in and Laura got to ring it: her first of the year. Only fair: Miranda and Ellie got to ring the two we caught last week at Webb’s Wood.
The list for the session was Blue Tit 2; Great Tit 1; Coal Tit 2; Marsh Tit (1); Long-tailed Tit 1; Wren 1; Chiffchaff 1; Goldcrest (1); Redpoll 1. Totals: 9 birds ringed from 7 species and two birds retrapped from 2 species, making 11 birds processed from 9 species.
I will be setting up feeders there in November, so the catches will improve. One of the regular dog walkers, David, with his fabulous Black Labrador, Denver, who loves women and goes a bit mad around them, wanting their attention (Denver, not David) came along whilst we were setting the nets and he did say that the birdlife in the wood had been very much missing this year. He asked if I was going to set up the feeders, and when I answered in the affirmative he offered to strim the rides and cut back the overgrowth: what a nice man! Naturally, I said “Yes please!”.
Ringing In The Braydon Forest & Beyond 