The last session of the year was held in the Firs. It was a cold start -3oC: the inside of my car was frozen, despite the cold weather cover! However, with the group I had coming out from a range of places, mostly south Gloucestershire, I knew we could handle the process without harm to the birds and, I am pleased to say, the team proved me right. I was joined for the session by Laura and Adam, Steph and daughter Lillie (Lillie ringed her first bird at age 6, she is now 16 and an excellent ringer) and Pete. Bea came along with Steph, to keep us entertained! With six of us to extract we could stay on top of the extractions and processing.
The Trust had been in the Firs, doing some more management, opening up the central glade. This resulted in the area down the slope being unsuitable for nets, so we extended the bottom nets by an additional 18m. I had planned to go further. However, this took us to where the bulk of the management work has been carried out: massive clearance of the undergrowth and small trees, leaving just a wide expanse of old Beech and Oak and not suitable for netting. In reality it is probably just as well, given how the morning panned out.
As ever, the first bird out of the nets was a Blue Tit, before they had been opened! Just like recent sessions: Blue Tit was the predominant species. Fortunately, the majority were retrapped birds.
The list for the day was: Great Spotted Woodpecker 1(1); Nuthatch (1); Blue Tit 27(38); Great Tit 8(9); Coal Tit (1); Marsh Tit (3); Long-tailed Tit 2; Dunnock (2); Robin 1(4); Redwing 1; Blackbird 2; Goldcrest (1); Chaffinch 6(1). Totals: 48 birds ringed from 8 species and 61 birds retrapped from 10 species, making 109 birds processed from 13 species.
We had multiple highlights: no Redwing all autumn and winter and now two in two sessions: very happy with that. Seven Chaffinch in one session is our best haul in the Firs since I started ringing there in 2012, and then when I started training in 2015, my trainees started helping me. Looking at the other Braydon Forest sites, the only one that has ever had a bigger catch of this species is Ravensroost Wood: on three occasions at the winter feeding stations, but not since 2018.
Also somewhat ironic: having not caught and ringed a Blackbird since 9th October this year, we caught and ringed one in our last session and another today. Perhaps better than that, we hadn’t caught and ringed any Great Spotted Woodpecker since the 9th September and have now ringed one in each of the last two sessions.
It is quite remarkable that the last two sessions in this wood have produced 222 birds from 14 species. My first two sessions in the Firs, in 2012, caught just 29 birds from 7 species. This year has produced more birds than in any previous year: 583 birds processed from 23 species. The second best year was 2019: with 427 birds processed, from 21 species.
We did a final round and shut the nets at 11:30, processed the final 20 birds and, with so many hands to pack away it was all done very quickly and we were away from site just after midday.
A final note: once again a local hunt, probably the Vale of the White Horse Hunt, allowed their hounds into the wood chasing a fox which, I am pleased to say, managed to escape their jaws. This is criminal activity and the sooner the trail hunting lie is banned the better. As well as foxes and badgers nearby, that wood has roosting Woodcock and a host of other wildlife. It is a nature reserve: not a playground for perverts! Unfortunately, the Wiltshire PCC is pro-hunting and has been proven to have misrepresented sab activities, so dealing with hunting crimes is deprioritised for Wiltshire police – a commonplace situation within UK policing unfortunately.
Ringing In The Braydon Forest & Beyond 