With this heatwave I am reluctant to cause any disruption to the birds coping out in our woods and farmland. However, those that are costing me a fortune feeding in my garden I thought are fair game, provided I packed up before the heat properly set in. I did decide, though, that once the temperature hit 23oC I would close the nets: so they were open from just 5:30 until 8:00, by which time it was baking hot, although there was a reasonable breeze The other reason I chose to make it a garden session was that, it was going to be short and I didn’t think it fair to bring the team in from Cirencester and Malmesbury for a very short session.
I set the nets the night before: 2 x 6m and 1 x 3m nets set in a squared off U-shape around the feeders and alongside the pond. I was going to do a map showing the net positions, but both OS Maps and Google Maps are rubbish at high resolution when using their aerial shots. Quick diagram:
A and C are the 6m nets and B is the 3m. FS = Feeding Stations. The foliage marked is 1: dwarf cherry; 2: apple tree; 3: plum tree; 4: dwarf crab apple; 5: two conifers; 6: a variety of shrubs, both wild and cultivated. Not shown is that the garden has recently been lightly strimmed after no mow October to June! There is also, quince, holly, hawthorn, pear, more plum and a large aspen in the top of the garden. This probably explains why I have trapped over 450 species of moth in the garden!
Anyway, it was a fairly typical garden session for this time of year. The only surprise was an adult female Blackcap. It is only the fifth that I have caught in my garden. It is the first adult I have caught for 6 years. The most recent was a juvenile in July 2024.
Another nice feature of the catch were three Greenfinch: two males and a females. There should have been a fourth, my first juvenile of the year, but Mr Incompetent lost control of it getting it out of the bag. It spent the rest of the session flying around the garage – even though I had the door wide open so its escape would be very easy. It finally left about 11:30!
The list for the morning was: Blue Tit 2[9](1); Great Tit [1]; Dunnock [1](1); Blackbird (1); Blackcap 1; Greenfinch 3; House Sparrow 1. Totals: 6 adults ringed from 4 species, 11 juveniles ringed from 3 species and 3 birds retrapped from 3 species, making 21 birds processed from 7 species.
It could have been better but I had a Stock Dove escape the net before I could get to it, ditto a juvenile Blackbird and another juvenile Dunnock. Surprisingly, no Goldfinch put in an appearance. There were plenty in the garden yesterday! I wonder who warned them? Completely absent from the garden now, since my last session, are the Starlings! Not one seen for a few days. I have my Potter traps out, loaded with mealworms, in case the Starlings decide to drop in or the Jackdaws decide they want a feed. We had an adult in the garden yesterday being pestered by two newly fledged juveniles. Fingers crossed.
Laura did a similar thing yesterday but had a much more interesting catch: Green Woodpecker 1; Great Spotted Woodpecker [1]; Blue Tit [1]; Great Tit [1]; Dunnock [1](1); Robin [1]; Blackbird 2[2]. Totals: 3 adults ringed from 2 species; 7 juveniles from 6 species and 1 retrap, making 11 birds from 7 species.
The thing is, just like my garden, Laura’s is usually full of Goldfinch and one would expect them to have figured in both hauls. Definitely a bit perplexing.