We were hoping to work the plateau at Blakehill Farm this morning but, unfortunately, the wind forecast changed, with much higher base wind speeds and gusting up to 28mph. Working on the basis that, with the wind coming from the South West, the hedgerows that line the site would provide enough cover from the wind for us to set nets. I had planned to set nets all along the hedgerow in the meadow north of the pond area. On arrival I could see a nice wee herd of Belted Galloway cattle lying down on the far side of the field. Previous encounters have resulted in a slobber covered car and lots of inquisitive nosing around by the cattle, so I decided we could only set the nets around the pond. Typically, not only did they not show any interest in us, not even to come to drink from the trough nearby, but they decided to move around to the other fields to the south of our ringing area! I couldn’t risk it though, so we just kept to the nets around the ponds.
We set the normal nets around the pond. A couple were a bit affected by the wind, but we only ended up closing one early. Anyway, I was joined at 6:00 by David, Laura and Adam for the morning. Due to some mobility issues, I did nothing much today except scribe and focus on training the team on fat scoring, whilst double-checking their decisions on moult and ageing. Suffice to say, they were fine with the latter two elements, as I would expect. I did do the first extractions: two Blackcaps and a Chiffchaff, that flew in whilst I was setting up the sound lures for passage migrants. However, the first round produced the bird of the morning:
David’s first ever extraction and subsequent ringing of a Firecrest. We have only caught seven Firecrest in the Braydon Forest since I started my project there in August 2012. The first was in Ravensroost Wood in November 2015. A complete first for that site: both sightings and ringing. It did spark a wee local twitch when the news got out. In fact, each of these were the same: first sightings and ringing records for Red Lodge, Webb’s Wood, Somerford Common West and now in Ravensroost Meadows pond area. We have had second records for Red Lodge and Ravensroost Woods. The other one to mention was at Lower Moor Farm: a first, which also precipitated a sizeable local twitch.
Our first few rounds were nicely busy, but then it died off as the wind increased. However, it was our best September result in the Meadows since 2019, and our second best ever in September at the site.
The list for the session was: Blue Tit 2[7]; Great Tit [1]; Wren [1](1); Dunnock [3]; Robin [2]; Song Thrush [1]; Blackcap [11](1); Chiffchaff [5]; Willow Warbler [2]; Goldcrest (1); Firecrest [1]. Totals: 2 adults ringed from 1 species, 34 juveniles ringed from 10 species and 3 birds retrapped from 3 species, making 39 birds processed from 11 species.
It was a decent morning, with a lot of bird activity, just not coming down to net height! We closed the first net at just after 10:45, and closed the remainder at 11:15. The team took down and we packed away, leaving site by 11:45. A big thank you to David, Laura and Adam for doing all of the donkey work this morning. It was very much appreciated.