Things have definitely tailed off now: in between the winter visitors leaving and the summer visitors just arriving, the catches have dropped from the high tens, and even some 100+ catches to a few tens if we are lucky.
It is quite a while since we have been in Red Lodge and today was our first visit since stopping the supplementary feeding regime. We moved the nets to our usual Spring / Summer / Autumn areas and set the following:
I was joined for the morning by Miranda and Sarah. We met at 6:30, as we had got used to those early mornings and, with the clocks going forward last weekend, it meant we actually set up in the dawn light, rather than full daylight.
Sarah is a teacher in Melksham and she brought along with her Dorothy: one of her pupils who is mad keen on birds. I love having children join us, and Dorothy was a delight. Not just her enthusiasm for the birds, but her willingness to help with the setting up and taking of the nets. As you will see later, the birds like her as well!
Setting up was a bit of a pain: we got rides 1 and 3 up without problem, but starting on ride 3 we found that, whomsoever had put it away, had managed to stuff half the net through one of the tethering strands at the top of the net. Sorting that out took an age. The one thing I know for sure is that it wasn’t me, as I left the taking down on Saturday to my team (all two of them!). 20 minutes it took to get it sorted out: those two are going to get some lessons on taking down nets and packing them away properly next time they are out with me!
We had the nets open and the ringing station set up by 8:00 and started catching straight away. It wasn’t a huge catch, usually just two or three birds each rounds, but it was a good catch. To start with, we had our first two Blackcaps of the year: a male and a female, both already coming into breeding condition.
We also caught and ringed our eleventh Marsh Tit of the year. If we can keep going at three per month we will just about match last year – but I am sure we will do better again this year. Last year we ringed 10 in the first four months of the year: so far it is 11 so any additional in the rest of the month will be a bonus. Talking of how the birds responded to Dorothy:
It lay there completely untroubled until we suggested it was time for it to leave!
We had started to catch Chiffchaff: one each on three occasions in March. Today we caught another three in the session. Again, two of them decided that they really did like sitting on Dorothy’s hand:
It is something that I have found quite often with children: birds sit still on their hands. We did show Dorothy how to hold bird in the ringer’s grip and how to hold one in the photography grip. She is keen to take up ringing.
The list from this morning was: Treecreeper 1; Blue Tit 7(2); Great Tit (2); Marsh Tit 1; Long-tailed Tit 1; Wren 1; Robin 1; Song Thrush 1; Blackbird 1; Blackcap 2; Chiffchaff 3. Totals: 19 birds ringed from 10 species and 4 birds ringed from 2 species, making 23 birds processed from 11 species.
For such a small catch it is a pretty decent variety. Indeed, we had hoped for more. All morning we were tormented by Nuthatch and their incredibly piercing calls and the Great Spotted Woodpeckers were busily drumming out their territorial claims. One of each of those would have been an excellent addition to the total.
As well as those, we had a Buzzard flying around, proclaiming its presence, and a Raven flew over, cronking as it went. The most unusual creature we saw this morning was brought to me by David. We meet regularly, as he walks his dog, Denver, in the wood and lives just up the road from the entrance. He is a mine of information on local birds: has identified Goshawk nest in the area, and let me know this morning that the Curlew have arrived back and are feeding in the fields adjacent to Red Lodge Farm. However, in his hand he had a Great Crested Newt. It was just about still alive. It had clearly been intended as breakfast for a predator, but he found it on the path with a chunk out of its tail, and a nasty cut under its lower jaw. It probably wouldn’t survive but he put it into a nearby pond, just in case. Importantly, he is quite certain that this is the first record of this species in Red Lodge.
Anyway, we did our last round at 11:20, closing as we went. There were no birds to process so we took down and it was all done and dusted by 11:50. As we only bring my car down the track, because I have all of the kit and we don’t want to block the track, I sent the others off to their cars whilst I finished packing the last few items into my car. Got in the car, pressed the start button, and no charge. I love my car, Mazda CX30, but it does have one big flaw. It is a mild hybrid and if you leave the tailgate open it drains the battery as it keeps all of the electrics running. Having been caught out before, I have invested in a superb little jump start gizmo. Attached the crocodile clips, pressed the start button and instantly fired up, thank goodness. So I got away a bit later than the others. To exacerbate an irritating end to the session, when I got home and unloaded the car, I suddenly realised that I had left my warning signs in the sign posts at the entrance to the site, so that necessitated a run back to site to pick them up. Thankfully, it is the nearest site to me, so it was only 5 minutes each way!
All in all, though, to catch 11 species in just 23 birds is really quite unusual, especially as nine of those were Blue Tits. Interesting that all bar two of the birds caught (two of the Chiffchaffs) were already coming into breeding condition.
Ringing In The Braydon Forest & Beyond 