With Wednesday’s forecast for it to be wet and windy, I decided to go out this morning. The forecast for today changed from being dry to having a 40% chance of rain. I contacted the team Monday evening and said that I would check the weather in the morning and make a decision. At 5:50 this morning I decided to go ahead, so we met at Webb’s Wood at 6:30. I was joined by Laura and Pete and we set the following nets:
This is about 500m away from our winter feeding station. We had the nets set by 7:15 and started catching straight away. It started well, but died a death by 10:00. At 8:30, Laura realised that she had forgotten she had an appointment to get to, so left at 9:00. Soon after the wind got up, the nets in ride 4 started billowing, then we had a few showers so, at 10:30, Pete and I closed the nets and started to take down. We were all packed up and ready to leave by 11:30.
The catch was decent, given how quickly it died away, and was as follows: Blue Tit 11; Great Tit 3; Coal Tit 3; Long-tailed Tit 3; Wren 1(1); Dunnock 1; Blackcap 1; Chiffchaff 4; Willow Warbler 3; Goldcrest 1. Totals: 31 birds ringed from 10 species and 1 retrap, making 32 birds processed from 10 species.
Every bird caught was showing signs of readying to breed: even the newly arrived Willow Warblers. They were the most vocal species in the wood this morning, and were also in Ravensroost and Somerford Common yesterday when I collected up the empty bird feeders. I stopped feeding the birds mid-March but it just took me a while to get around to removing them. All feeders are luxuriating in a bath of strong disinfectant right now.
The Blue Tit females had all defeathered their brood patches, and one of them was almost certainly ready to brood their eggs, if not already doing so.
So, not a huge catch but it is that time of year when they fall away, as we switch off the lures, and the birds are far too busy hunting for food, usually insect larvae in the tops of trees in our woodlands, to be bothered with coming down to the nets.
Ringing In The Braydon Forest & Beyond 