After a quite remarkable June, it was our first July outing, to Lower Moor Farm. I was approached by the Wiltshire Wildlife Trust Public Engagement team a couple of months ago and asked if I would be happy to do a short bird ringing demonstration for a group of secondary school pupils spending a work experience week with the Trust. Naturally, I was happy to help.
I was joined for the morning by Laura and Miranda at 5:00, and we set our usual nets. It was a dreadfully slow start to the morning and I was a bit worried that we wouldn’t have much to show them. Fortunately, it did pick up a bit and, when they arrived at 9:00, we had some birds to show them. Before they arrived we had caught and processed just 9 birds in 3.5 hours, after they arrived we did have 26 birds to show them.
It was a typical group of mid-teens: a dozen of them, a couple of real enthusiasts, plenty who became enthusiastic once we had birds to show them, and those who get very enthusiastic when given the opportunity to learn how to safely hold and release a bird, and, of course, getting their photo taken doing so, and a couple who were clearly thinking “what am I doing here when I could be at home playing on my iPad or phone!” whatever we did. In the end, all bar three were happy to actually hold and release a bird.
The list for the morning was: Treecreeper [2]; Blue Tit [2]; Great Tit [2]; Long-tailed Tit 1[1](1); Wren 2[1](1); Dunnock [2](3); Robin [4]; Blackbird 1[1]; Blackcap 5[2](2); Garden Warbler [1]; Chiffchaff 1. Totals: 10 adults ringed from 5 species, 18 juveniles ringed from 9 species and 7 birds retrapped from 4 species, making 35 birds processed from 11 species.
The juvenile Garden Warbler was so cute: unfortunately, both of my photos are rubbish. However, it had so many feathers in pin, including its very short tail and its primary flight feathers, that I was tempted, for the first time ever, to age it as a 1j. That is a youngster that has been forced to fledge too early. When I released it, it flew away strongly, so I gave it an age code of 3j, properly fledged juvenile bird from this breeding season, but its flying ability was the reason for that decision.
The last round of the day produced the best catch of the day. We had shut the nets and closed them at 11:30, processed a few more birds, but I knew nothing about this catch until Miranda and Laura sent me these photos:
The best birding moment of the morning was a pair of Great White Egret on the opposite side of Mallard Lake from our ringing station. It is the first time I have seen the species at this site. I have seen one at Coate Water, the other side of Swindon, apart from that it has just been on the Somerset Levels.
A nice session, I would have liked more birds, but there were some good moments to enjoy. We were off site by just after midday.