Not only was it our largest ever February catch but also our biggest ever average February catch. The numbers were definitely skewed by the number of Blue Tits, not ringed, as that was the same as last year, but in the number retrapped, with 132 this February and just 89 last.
We only managed 15 proper sessions in the month, and two of mine were truncated by the weather: the one at Somerford Common West we had to call off after less than two hours of the nets being open, with just six ringed and 12 retrapped. Despite that, we managed to average 56.3 birds per session. This was the catch:
We didn’t manage to match last year’s number of species but we have had a few that weren’t caught in February last year: Barn Owl, Tawny Owl and Sparrowhawk. The Barn Owls and the Tawny Owl were the result of Jonny cleaning out his owl boxes prior to the start of the breeding season. However, the Tawny Owl was sitting on eggs already. To me, this is the highlight of February.
Missing from the list this year were House Sparrow, Linnet, Snipe, Song Thrush, Starling, Tree Sparrow and Treecreeper.
So the numbers ringed were similar but the retrap numbers were just under 50 higher. The key thing about this is in the number of sessions, so the number ringed was lower: 426 from 26 species vs 446 from 29. Whereas the number retrapped was was 49 higher, and the average was 7.1 birds higher per session, although the number of species was lower, 15 vs 18. Overall, last year had a total of 31 species whereas this year it was only 26.
I cannot complete this without referring to my Marsh Tits: double the number ringed last February and nearly double the number retrapped! After last year’s excellent results, this is our best start ever: 9 ringed and 22 retrapped in the first two months of the year. The nine ringed is standalone the best for January and February in any year, the previous best was six last year. 22 retrapped is equal to the number in 2024, but more than in any other year.
Ringing In The Braydon Forest & Beyond 