With yesterday living up to its forecast of very high winds and rain, and the forecasts for the Ravensroost Meadows area to be dry and sunny all day, with a gentle breeze from the south-west, I decided to move our session to today and to only set the nets that were sheltered from the predicted wind direction.
Laura, Pete and I arrived on site at 5:00 and set the following nets:
All nets were 5-shelf Ecotone 16mm mesh. Nets 1, 2 and 3 each comprised one 12m net. Net 4 comprised one 6m net. Ride 5 comprised three 18m and one 9m nets. Finally, net 6 comprised one 18m net.
Catches haven’t been of the best in the pond area for over six years, but one lives in hope. We started catching pretty well straight away, and had a steady stream of birds to extract right up until we decided to close them at 11:30.
There was a lot of good catching this morning: a tremendous number of Chiffchaff and Whitethroat for starters. Two of my favourite catches were:
This is our first juvenile Whitethroat of the year. That was followed later in the morning by this:
Our first juvenile Bullfinch of the year. This is our earliest capture of a juvenile Bullfinch since three on the 15th June 2019. We have actually only every ringed six in June: three in 2019, two in June 2024 and this one today.
The list for the session was: Blue Tit 1[2]; Great Tit 1[3]; Long-tailed Tit [2]; Wren 2; Dunnock [2]; Robin [4]; Song Thrush 1; Blackcap 1; Garden Warbler [1]; Whitethroat 1[6](5); Chiffchaff 2[10](2); Willow Warbler 2(1); Bullfinch [1]; Goldfinch 2. Totals: 13 adults ringed from 8 species, 31 juveniles ringed from 9 species and 8 birds retrapped from 3 species, making 52 birds processed from 14 species.
One happy coincidence: at our last session in the wood, last Saturday, Adam, Laura’s son, and youngest and a valuable member of our team, ringed a Willow Warbler, ring number TDV734. Unfortunately, it slipped his grasp before it could be measured and weighed. It happens to everyone at one time or other. This morning Laura extracted an already ringed Willow Warbler: TDV734! She finished the job her son hadn’t quite managed to! But, without the ring in place, we wouldn’t have known that.
We closed the nets at 11:30 and took down, getting away at about 12:30 after a very satisfactory session.
Ringing In The Braydon Forest & Beyond 