After our rather good catch at Somerford Common on Thursday, our best catch there for 5 years, and our second best ever at the site, I was interested to see what we might find at the Firs this morning. With yesterday’s torrential rain I did wonder what impact it might have on the birds. Well, I think they hadn’t eaten yesterday because they were out in force today!
I was joined by David, Laura, Adam and Pete. I decided on a 7:30 start because the forecast had rain not clearing until gone 6:00, to be followed by a misty, murky morning (and I also wanted a bit of a lay in!). Claire was going to join us but she was visiting friends in Bristol yesterday and, by the time she was ready to leave that evening the trains had been cancelled because of flooded tracks! Mark arrived mid-morning to bring his usual fun persona and help out. Importantly, Adam and Laura brought along Teresa: Adam’s exchange student from Germany. Very friendly girl: she spent most of the morning getting pecked by Blue Tits and learning how to hold and release them. Towards the end of the session we (Laura) taught her how to take the biometrics and straight away she was very accurate on her wing lengths.
Anyway, we set rather more net than usual:
We had the nets open just before 9:00. The promised mist was there but it was originally supposed to lift by 10:00, but it never did. Mist isn’t a bad thing when you are bird ringing, as it makes the nets even harder to see, provide they don’t get wet and covered in dew drops. Also, there was no wind at all in the wood, probably why the mist stayed around.
We started catching straight away, as we were opening the nets: taking a couple of birds back with us as we headed back up to the ringing station. Pete went down to check the other nets, whilst we put up ride 5. He gave a shout, saying there were lots of birds. We went to join him The first round proper was a heavy 34 birds from seven species! Blue Tit heavy, as usual at this time of year.
The next round was not quite as big, but with a number of different species. That was the theme of the morning, good catches, with the odd singleton thrown into the mix. We ended up with the largest ever catch at the Firs: Nuthatch 1; Blue Tit 45(22); Great Tit 8(8); Coal Tit 1(3); Marsh Tit (1); Long-tailed Tit 8(1); Wren (1); Dunnock 1; Robin 3(1); Blackbird (1); Goldcrest 4(1); Chaffinch 2(1). Totals: 73 birds ringed from 9 species and 30 birds retrapped from 10 species, making 113 birds processed from 12 species. This is far and away our best ever catch anywhere in the Braydon woodlands. If you add in Blakehill Farm, there has only been two larger catches there: 137 on 21st September 2020 and 131 on the 25th September 2018. Those catches were the result of catching 109 and 98 Meadow Pipits respectively. They also only caught 2 and 4 Blue Tits respectively in those sessions.
It was hard work: Blue Tits are not big or fearsome, but they peck at you continuously when you are extracting them, processing them and even when you are releasing them. We caught 67 today. That is our biggest ever haul at any of my sites.
Catching our second Nuthatch of the week was a highlight: we hadn’t actually caught any since the 25th June, somewhat ironically, that was a catch of three in the Firs.
We did our last round at midday, closing the nets as we went, catching another eight birds as we did. After processing the last eight birds, we took down and packed away. However, the mist turned to rain while we were taking the nets down. With David’s dad, Trevor, joining in to help, with eight of us working together, we were finished and off site by 12:45.
Ringing In The Braydon Forest & Beyond 