Quite an astonishing month: our best ever October in terms of numbers, which is surprising, given that my team and I only managed five sessions. The weather was the key component but, the one day we could have got out for some Meadow Pipits, I managed to be ill. As a result, my team didn’t catch any, as against the 40 we caught last October. It didn’t help that in our session at Blakehill Farm West we had to let 15 birds go unringed because I ran out of AA rings, which would have taken it up to just over 50 birds in the session. What has made this month’s total so big is Jonny’s efforts, with half-a-dozen sessions bringing in over 100 birds and, in total, catching over 1,000 birds in 10 sessions. Unluckily for him, a large number of them were Blue Tits, there was even some ringing and flinging. There are some quite remarkable differences in the catch between now and October last year: some good, some not so good.
Our previous best October was in 2023, with 1348 birds processed from 36 species.
Included in this years catch but not in last were: Carrion Crow, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Jay, Magpie and, surprisingly. a Sedge Warbler, caught by Jonny at Langford Lakes. Missing from this year’s catch was quite a lot: Kestrel, Nuthatch, Pied Wagtail, Siskin, Song Thrush and Tree Sparrow.
The three most glaring increases in numbers this year are Blue Tit with 259 ringed and 98 retrapped, against 118 and 52 last year. Of those, Jonny ringed 179 and retrapped 79. In fact, unsurprisingly, all of these increases are largely down to Jonny and his 10 sessions in the month.
Next most spectacular increase was Chiffchaff with 218 ringed and 2 retrapped against 113 ringed and 1 retrapped. That was followed by Goldfinch, with 124 ringed and 3 retrapped against 79 ringed.
The key species that were down on last year were Meadow Pipit with 108 ringed and 1 retrap, against 248 ringed and 3 retraps. I have already mentioned that my catch went from 40 to zero, Jonny had 103 ringed and 1 retrap and Andy had 5 ringed. Last year it was Jonny with 205 ringed and 1 retrap, me with 38 ringed and 2 retraps and, Mr Consistency, Andy, with 5 ringed.
That was followed by Redwing: just 3 caught this year, compared with 129. One on the Imber Ranges, two at one of Jonny’s farmland sites. Last year they were caught in seven different sites. Are they running late?
There was a slight surprise that there were no Tree Sparrows this October as Jonny had a 96 bird catch at one of his key sites for the species on the first of the month.
However, the absolute highlight has to be our latest ever ringing of a Sedge Warbler: ringed at Langford Lakes Nature Reserve on the 22nd October. The only other Sedge Warbler caught in October was back in 2005, on the 1st October.
Anyway, you can see from the session statistics just how ridiculously large the average catch sizes came out at. Even, despite my lack of activity, my 5 sessions averaged out at just under 40 birds processed per session. If I hadn’t messed up with my AA rings, it would have been over 40, despite Red Lodge’s best efforts to drag it down, with a disappointing 11 birds! Webb’s Wood helped out very well with that, providing our best catch there ever, even when there was supplementary feeding in place, at 74 birds caught. I haven’t felt that supplementary feeding has been necessary to date. I judge it on when the Goldfinches, Starlings etc. start hitting the garden for food. I have no doubt that several of Jonny’s catches are absolutely his best for those particular sites.
Laura, at least, had a particular highlight: not only her first ever Magpie but it very kindly rolled over from its back with claws extended, onto its front so she could just lift it our in a ringer’s grip!
Anyway, I hope that the weather is better for November! Next week is still looking very windy and wet, but the forecast changes regularly.
Ringing In The Braydon Forest & Beyond 