A quite phenomenal month for the team. As ever, Jonny’s contribution was huge, with 628 of the records, but my team’s contribution wasn’t too shabby at 454! This is what we processed:
Added to the list for this year is Linnet, Magpie, Pied Wagtail and Starling. Missing from this year’s list is Bullfinch, Fieldfare, Jay, Siskin and Treecreeper. The last is somewhat surprising, because all of my ringing this month has been in woodland. Two of last year’s three were from my sites. I didn’t have any this October either for the first time ever. Clearly the obvious difference is the number of Blue Tits processed. Absolutely huge: in my last two sessions we have processed 105 of the blighters. The Friday session was just David and me, the Sunday session was Ellie, and me, but Ellie had to leave at 10:40 for work, leaving me another 25 or so to process. Lucky me!
Other significant increases were Chiffchaff (65 vs 45) – our best ever November catch. All of them caught at Johnny’s sites. Mind, he had 40 of last year’s total (and I had the other 5). 21 of them were at Langford Lakes, not so surprising, but 43 of them were on farmland near Sutton Benger. Good numbers of Chaffinch this year, with 12 caught near Hilmarton and the rest evenly split around a number of sites in the Braydon Forest and Jonny’s farmland sites. Best thing about it: our team did not find a single bird that we couldn’t ring due to FPV or mite infestation.
A nice increase in Goldcrest numbers but an astonishing number of Goldfinch caught. The Sutton Benger sites were having an absolute ball: 73 of them were caught there. 16 at his East Tytherton farm site.
Personally, my favourite catch of the month was the 13 Marsh Tits ringed. All were ringed within the Braydon Forest, taking us to 37 ringed for the year so far. The total ringed in Wiltshire last year was 44, with the Braydon Forest contributing 19. If the other Wiltshire sites are showing similar catch rates, what a huge turnaround that will be for the species in Wiltshire. I am extremely hopeful that we will pass 40 in the Forest this year. With four woodland sessions left before the end of the year, I am pretty confident.
The last big increase was in Yellowhammer numbers: 57 vs 3! Once again, the Sutton Benger sites on a par with the Hilmarton site (27 vs 26) and four on the Imber Ranges.
That said, there are some pretty heavy reductions in other species.
Long-tailed Tit numbers were well down, both new and retrapped (62 vs 115), but retraps more so (16 vs 47). Meadow Pipit numbers were down (7 vs 21), but Redwing numbers were very, very low (29 vs 121). Not too surprising in some respects: my key site for the species at this time of year is Blakehill Farm and, apart from the consistently high winds in November, which prevented me ringing there, the Hawthorn and Blackthorn hedgerow has been layered, in accordance with the requirements of their Countryside Stewardship plan. Ideally, it needs to be at least six foot high, laden with berries, not three foot high with none. It is our worst November haul of this species since 2017!
A couple of footnotes: this is our second best November, identical in numbers to 2022, and just 42 lower than our best ever, set in 2020. 2022 was achieved in 23 sessions and 2020 in 24 sessions. Also, we have overtaken last year’s total already: 12,354 birds processed vs 12,157. The key difference is in the number of birds ringed: 9,544 vs 8,966. Retraps were down by 400: 2,161 vs 2,561. Pullus ringing was slightly up, despite the poor Barn Owl year, at 649 vs 630.
Ringing In The Braydon Forest & Beyond 