Our last session of what has been a quite extraordinary month for our entire Group, more of which in the results round up on Monday. Don’t miss it.
Today we were at Ravensroost Meadows. I was joined by David, Laura, Adam and Pete. We met at 5:30 and set our usual nets for the site.
Ride 1 comprised 2 x 18m 5-shelf nets; ride 2 comprised 2 x 18m 4-shelf nets; rides 3, 4 and 5 each comprised 1 x 18m 5-shelf net; ride 6 comprised 3 x 18m + 1 x 9m 5-shelf nets; ride 7 comprised 1 x 6m 5-shelf net and ride 7 comprised 1 x 18m 5-shelf net. We set the ringing station in the shade blocking the gateway into the site.
The nets were open by about 6:30 and we started catching straight away. Although the sun was out all morning the only rides to be even partially affected were 1 and 2.
Unlike Wednesday’s haul, it wasn’t a huge catch. There were a few highlights though. To start with, we caught our first Lesser Whitethroat of the year:
There is definitely a lot of early fledging going on. Whilst setting up ride 1, a Long-tailed Tit juvenile flew into the net whilst it was still being removed from the bag. David extracted it safely. The rest of its family group were in the hedgerow but, unfortunately for our figures, they all managed to avoid the net in question, so it was the only one that we caught.
Unfortunately, I became somewhat unwell at just after 8:30. As Laura has the appropriate permit I left her in charge and snuck home. She ran the team effectively and efficiently and ended the session at about 11:00. Then she kindly delivered all of the equipment back to my house at about 11:30.
The list for today was: Blue Tit [1]; Long-tailed Tit [1]; Wren 1(1); Dunnock 1; Robin 2[2]; Blackbird 1; Blackcap 1[2]; Whitethroat 3; Lesser Whitethroat 1; Chiffchaff 2; Willow Warbler 1(1). Totals: 13 adults ringed from 9 species, 6 juveniles ringed from 4 species and 2 birds retrapped from 2 species, making 21 birds processed from 11 species.
Ringing In The Braydon Forest & Beyond 