A small session this morning, but a first for the site and a very nice second for the site. I was joined for the session by Laura, Adam and Pete. We met at 5:30, but Pete was leaving at 9:45 for a business meeting and Laura at 10:30 for an orchestra practice, leaving me and Adam for the rest of the session. We set the usual nets in the pond area but, given the size of the crew, didn’t set nets in the field. With the drought conditions, the causeway was uncovered.
It was a very slow session and we didn’t catch too many birds. However, halfway through the session we caught only our second ever juvenile Reed Warblers. The structure of the site has changed and there is now a small reed bed in the larger pond. Potentially, given the moult stage of these two birds, they fledged from here. I will have a look for the nest once I am certain breeding is over.
As well as these two, we also had a first for the site.
We don’t catch many outside of my garden, and have only caught four in the main wood: but none there since three in 2012. There has definitely been an upturn in the numbers coming into my garden, I ring about 10 a year on average, but that is largely dependent upon how many sessions I manage, which is very variable. My biggest catch was 39 in 13 sessions in 2015. Unsurprisingly, 2020 was my second biggest catch, at 31 from 15 sessions. The total is 130 ringed in the eight years I have caught them in the garden, so an average of just over 16 per year. Most of that is due to feeding them – and there has been no sign of Trichomoniasis in any of them for over 10 years! Cleanliness is everything but, also, they don’t come in huge flocks, just two or three at a time, so the danger of disease spreading is very low.
Another nice catch was a male Reed Bunting: we catch the bulk of these at Blakehill Farm in the autumn and winter (248 in 10 years), In that time we have caught just seven in Ravensroost Meadows, until we added one today. The birds caught in the Meadows have all been adults, so no actual sign of breeding there. One lives in hope.
Anyway, our small catch ended up on: Blue Tit 1[1]; Great Tit 1[4]; Dunnock 1[2]; Robin 1[2](2); Blackbird 1[2]; Reed Warbler [2]; Blackcap [2]; Chiffchaff [2]; Willow Warbler [1]; Greenfinch 1; Reed Bunting 1. Totals: 7 adults ringed from 7 species, 18 juveniles ringed from 9 species and 2 birds retrapped from 1 species, making 27 birds processed from 11 species.
Adam and I started taking down at 12:30, having caught a few extra birds as we were trying to close the nets, and we were off site by just after 1:00. I drove him home as his usual chauffeuse, Laura, had left for her practice and then concert, doing a French Horn solo Wednesday evening.