Author: Braydon Forest & Beyond

Some lovely weather today and we were looking forward to a good session. To be fair, it was a very enjoyable session, and we did catch more birds than in the equivalent session last year, well, one more!

I was joined for the session by the family Childs, David and Sarah. We met at 5:30 and set the nets. The first nets were open by 5:45, with the rest of the CES nets open by 6:15. As well as the CES nets we did try out a new net ride outside of the CES area (ride 6 in the diagram below):

The non-CES net was set up in the newly planted orchard area: lots of apple trees in blossom! Lots of Willow Warblers singing and one Whitethroat. Fortunately, we did actually catch one Willow Warbler and a male Whitethroat in that net ride. Most of the other birds caught were from the ride labelled 1 on the diagram. That is unusual: normally we would have expected the ride labelled 3 to be the main catching area.

The catching was very sporadic, with multiple empty rounds. Fortunately, we had plenty to distract us. Perhaps the most interesting event of the morning was brought to our attention by a photographer who asked my opinion on a bird he had just photographed: it was a Common Sandpiper. I have seen them at Lower Moor Farm in the autumn, but never at this time of year. More interestingly, that one Common Sandpiper turned into two, who spent the next thirty minutes flying around Mallard Lake, from a base of a couple of dead trees that stick out from the main track, flying to the shore line and back again. There have been sporadic records of them breeding in Wiltshire, but is very rare. However, two together, when most will already be heading to their breeding grounds, could be a possibility. Interestingly, I contacted the Cotswold Water Park team and was told that one had been reported at the Lower Mill Estate this morning. Possibly one of the two seen today: there is about one mile between the two sites.

We also had a nice view of a Hobby flying over the site. Given how many dragonflies were emerging on the site, and how many were flying around, I was a little surprised we didn’t see the Hobby hunting. There seemed to be a lot of Downy Emerald flying around:

Downy Emerald, Cordulia aenea. There were also some early Four-spotted Chasers identified.

The list for the day was: Treecreeper 1; Jay 1; Great Tit (1); Wren (1); Dunnock 1(1); Robin 2(1); Blackbird (1); Blackcap 1(2); Whitethroat 1; Willow Warbler 1; Chiffchaff (2). Totals: 8 birds ringed from 7 species and 9 birds retrapped from 7 species, making 17 birds processed from 11 species.

There were definite highlights in the catch:

Robin, Erithacus rubecula, our first newly-fledged juvenile of the year ringed from any species. The next highlight was the previously mentioned Whitethroat. Their numbers have reduced in my catches over the last few years and we had none at Lower Moor last year:

Whitethroat, Curruca communis. I have no idea what took its interest!

Jays are always an infrequent catch: the last one caught at Lower Moor Farm was in May 2021 and the last at any of my sites was in Ravensroost Wood in July 2022. So to catch one, just about our last bird of the day, was a very pleasant surprise:

Jay, Garrulus glandarius: a delight even though it managed to rip my little finger open with one of its claws – blood everywhere, and all blood in this photo is mine!

We ran the CES for the required 6 hours, then closed the nets and took down. It really doesn’t take long when you have a crew of six to help!

Following on from my visit to the Warminster area to check on various raptor nest boxes, today I started out on checking the boxes that we have in the north, mainly in or around the Braydon Forest. I was joined for the morning by Laura.

I arranged to check the boxes at Blakehill Farm, Ravensroost Meadows and Somerford Farm. We didn’t get to all of the planned boxes: but those that we did get to were very encouraging. Interestingly, they are several weeks behind the birds and nests that were visited on Tuesday. None of the nest boxes visited today had young that were old enough to ring. In fact, each box that had nests had a mix of very young, altricial chicks and unhatched eggs.

Last year was a quite disastrous year for Barn Owls in the Forest. We only had 12 successful youngsters survive the season from 5 nest boxes. There was an awful lot of brood cannibalism: which left us with three broods of two and two broods of three. That probably underlines the problem: a lack of rodents. Two of my usually most productive sites produced zero Barn Owl nests, let alone chicks. One box had a roosting adult when visited but no sign of a breeding attempt, two had been taken over by Grey Squirrels and two by Jackdaws – so we did get to ring eight Jackdaw chicks, but that is no compensation. We checked on close to 30 boxes for that paltry return.

I met Laura at the Whitworth Building at Blakehill Farm at 9:00 and we checked on our first box, situated in Poucher’s Field. There was no breeding attempted there last year and in the year before it had been used as a roost for adult birds. We never did find where they were actually nesting that year. Before that it was a regular, successful breeding site. One of the reasons we didn’t get to as many boxes as we would have liked was, quite simply, access. All of the boxes that we visited today are usually accessible by vehicle. Today most of them weren’t. That meant a lot of ladder carrying and “just in case” equipment carrying and, after a day of yomping around the Wylye Valley on Tuesday, my arthritic right ankle decided when it had done enough for the day.

Anyway, I pitched the ladder across the pond that has formed around the base of the tree in which the box is situated, and went to open up. As I did so, the female flew off from the back of the nest box. A bit of a red flag: the entrance hole is at the front. Anyway, once I opened the box I was delighted to find five very small owlets. Two had eyes open, three were still eyes shut and there were also another two eggs, hopefully ready to hatch. It looks as though we might have a good sized brood there this year. One of the really good things about it: there was a larder of four mice in the box. Hopefully that means that it is going to be a good year for mice and voles and, therefore, a good year for the owls. The box will need replacing over the winter, as the back has cracked and the edges are rotting away.

As ever, it is horrifying just how filthy the conditions are inside a Barn Owl box. When these are big enough to ring I will clean out the box and give them some nice, dry, clean wood shavings to sit on. (That’s “sit on”, but I am sure they will do the other thing as well!)

If that was a nice surprise, the next box in the hedgerow between Allotment field and ROC field was definitely more of a surprise. Firstly, the old dilapidated, roof falling off, commandeered by Jackdaws, box has been replaced with an excellent, brand new box. Even better, as we approached two adults flew off. When I opened the box I found a nest cup with one egg in it, plus several dead mice around it. However, I also located another two eggs in different parts of the box. The problem being that, despite the box being very new, Jackdaws had already filled the nest cavity with sticks. I spend the next ten minutes carefully removing all of the Jackdaw’s hard work and returning the box to the condition it ought to have been in. I hope the Barn Owls like it. The only Barn Owl successfully ringed from that box was a roosting male caught the first time we checked it in 2018. Since then it has been empty of Barn Owls, but we have ringed two broods of Jackdaw in that box.

This is how it looked after I had cleared away a sizeable chunk of the Jackdaw material. The rest will get done when we go back to ring them.

From there we headed off to the Ravensroost complex. We couldn’t get into Avis Meadows, where there are two boxes, because the gate padlock was seized up and I didn’t have my handy can of WD40 in the car. So we went over the road to the other meadows. The first box was looking good: the female flew off as we set up the ladder and spent the rest of the time that we were at the nest quartering the field, looking for prey no doubt. She had four very young, naked, eyes barely open chicks and two eggs in the nest. For the absence of doubt, I should emphasise that we ae at the nest for as long as it takes to get the ladder up, open the box, see what’s there, close the box, take down the ladder and push off.

The second box in that meadow area is usually where we find Stock Doves nesting. Unfortunately, this year there is no sign, yet, of anything attempting to use that box for breeding. Our next stop was at Somerford Farm. The owner, David Fitzherbert, is a keen conservationist. He has been extremely helpful in getting local farmers to buy into Jonny Cooper’s Braydon Forest Curlew project. His land is mainly rented out apart from a significant acreage in front of his house, which is left more or less fallow, as a wildflower meadow, and which has proven a successful breeding area for Lapwing in the past. He also makes his own owl boxes – and they are classy. The first one we visited today is south of Somerford Common, in a big old barn. In the four years that I have had access to his boxes, it has never had anything in it. Even last year a Stock Dove decided to nest in the rafters of the barn, rather than use the box. I said to Laura as we drew up that, if it was empty again this year, I was going to recommend moving it to a different location. As I went up the ladder two adults flew off. When I opened the box there were three eggs inside. I did a bit of cleaning out because it clearly had been used over the winter and there was a lot of muck in there. Anyway, another positive sign: there were already mice being stored in there by the parent birds!

Our next box is along a back lane that leads to a shooting copse. It is one of the easiest to get to and rarely disappoints. Only last year it was taken over by Grey Squirrel and there was no sign of Barn Owl activity. I removed the drey at the end of the breeding season last year and delighted to say that we have Barn Owls back in residence. Again, two adults flew off as we approached. Inside the box we found three newly-hatched chicks and three eggs. The three newly-hatched were about to become four, because we could hear another youngster making noises and its egg was cracking around the middle.

The last box we checked is a Little Owl box. It has been in situ for two previous seasons, where it has not been occupied. This year we found it filled with bedding material, but I suspect it was of rodent rather than bird origin. That was our last visit of the day. We finished at 12:15, I ran Laura back to Blakehill Farm to pick up her car, and then headed home.

I am pleased with the session: with 12 young, 13 eggs and the possibility of quite a few more, in the first six Barn Owl boxes checked plus the fact that every box with eggs or young already has a larder of rodents available for feeding the young!

I spent today with my new trainee, Justine, and helper, Mark, being driven around the Wylye Valley to check on a number of Barn Owl, Tawny Owl, Kestrel and Little Owl nest boxes. The back story to this is that Justine was being trained by the legend that is Nigel Lewis in monitoring and ringing raptors throughout the Wylye Valley area and Salisbury Plain as part of the Salisbury Plain Raptor Ringing Group (SPRRG). Nigel, having reached a ripe old age, decided that he would step back from being a licensed ringer. That left five of the members of the group without a trainer. Although they were all C-permit holders, so could operate independently, they still have to have a trainer to take responsibility for their activities, and for their development to become A-permit holders. They were all on restricted permits: allowing them to target a limited number of species and stages. In their case it is Barn Owl, Tawny Owl, Little Owl and Kestrel pulli, i.e. box nesting birds of prey.

Justine was already working with me, to expand her knowledge and skills to cover the additional bird groups that are on my permit: Passerines, near Passerines: both adults and pulli, to get them added to the endorsements on her permit. When the news came through about Nigel, I straight away offered to take her on as my trainee. Subsequently, I have taken the other four on as well, not that they are going to spend much time working with me, but so they can carry on working within the SPRRG, as there were no other trainers within that group who could take them on.

Today was the first time I went out to assess how Justine handles the pulli of her target species. I was perfectly confident in her ability but, apparently, she was more than a little worried that I wouldn’t think she was up to scratch! Suffice to say, I was very happy with her handling, ringing and measuring skills. Mark is a great help: driver, chief ladder carrier, pullus handler (getting them in and out of the boxes) and nest box cleaner! They make a good team.

I met up with them in Warminster at 8:45 and we then headed off to check on approximately 10 boxes. Straight away I was impressed with the organisation of the session. Justine and Mark had already visited these boxes at the beginning of April and noted the status: whether there were adults roosting, eggs or young in the nest boxes, etc. Justine had then worked out, using the available data, what stage she expected the birds to be at. She was correct on all bar one of the sites checked! That’s pretty astounding on something that is based on ranges of values, rather than absolutes.

One thing I noticed as we were driving over the farmland to reach the sites were the sheer number of Hares that are out there on the farmlands of the Wylye Valley. It is no wonder Justine posts so many photos of them on Facebook! Everywhere you looked they were in view!

Our first site was a disappointment. When checked earlier in April there had been a clutch of seven eggs in the box. We realised pretty well immediately that there was a problem when we found one the chicks dead on the floor between some hay bales about 7m away from the nest box. It hadn’t been predated or scavenged: there was no meat on it. On checking the box we did discover three chicks: two were large and rather healthy, which might explain the reduction in numbers. One was somewhat smaller, but healthy enough. When given a dead mouse to eat it swallowed the beast willingly. I suspect that the bad weather over the last month had severely impacted on the availability of food. It made us a bit concerned about what we might find at the other boxes. Fortunately, that was the only tale of tragedy that we had. I hadn’t thought of taking food with me but, as pet shops stock dead mice for feeding pet snakes, I might have to investigate and lay hands on some, for emergency supplies in times of dearth.

The rest of the day went well. We ended up ringing four broods of Barn Owl: comprising the first three, then a remarkable brood of seven and two broods of five each. All were good weights, mainly with feathers medium. One or two of the younger ones were still feathers small:

Five sleepy Barn Owl pulli. For those who worry about photographs like this: this photograph was taken whilst Mark was cleaning out their box and lining it with some clean, dry bedding. They were returned straight after, and resumed sleeping. It was this brood that was the one Justine didn’t get quite right. Having visited on the 2nd April, when there were four eggs, it was really quite a surprise that, firstly, there were five and, secondly, that they were all ready for ringing. One other Barn Owl box had three small young and three eggs: it will be a while before they are ready for ringing.

The most unusual site / sight I suppose was this:

This is a Barn Owl box made from an old ammunition box: hence all of the catches and hinges. A large proportion of the members of the SPRRG are ex-military and have retained contacts and, apparently, quite a few of the nest boxes on Salisbury Plain are of the same construction. What was surprising about this box were the occupants:

Tawny Owl pullus. Generally, Tawny Owls prefer deep nest holes, but it is clearly not obligatory. There were three of them in the box:

Again, three sleepy chicks waiting for their box to be cleaned! They do make the most remarkable bill clacking when being handled. It really did echo around the barn. However, as you can see, they don’t waste energy when they can go back to sleep.

We checked on a few Kestrel boxes: two were occupied. One was part way through laying the clutch with three eggs laid so far, the other had probably finished laying, with six eggs present. They will be checked again in four weeks or so, by which time they should have hatched and be ready for ringing. The incubation time, according to BTO BirdFacts from Nest Record Scheme data is 28-29 days, with subsequent fledging another 32 – 37 days.

The check that struck the most personal note with both Justine and Mark was the solitary Little Owl box that we visited. The box at this site had crashed to the ground last year, and the two youngsters in the brood were lost. A new box was erected but the adults disappeared. The male Little Owl had his preferred perch but on previous checks this year he had been conspicuous by his absence. However, as we drove up to the site today he could be seen sitting back in his usual place. This gave us some hope, which was confirmed when the box was checked and the female was found to be sitting on three eggs. That is a lovely, hopeful step, particularly with Little Owl being in steep decline across the country (some 78% between 1967 and 2020).

It was a long day, very rewarding and good for me to see just how competent Justine is with these birds that are the mainstay of her work to date.

I have been moth trapping in my garden since 2011. The advent of digital photography has revolutionised the study of moths: trays of record specimens, killed and pinned to boards, have largely been replaced by hundreds (thousands?) of photographs. I have never felt the need to “collect” specimens in that way, anyway.

Over the years I have had some wonderful catches, including a first for Wiltshire:

Gypsy Moth, Lymantria dispar

It became extinct in the early 1900’s and was apparently accidentally reintroduced, probably through the port of London in about 1969. Numbers have increased and are regularly reported in Wiltshire these days.

Anyway, since I started I have recorded over 450 species of moth in my garden. 150 species of micro moth and 300 species of macro, not including aggregates. I refuse to extract genitalia to distinguish between, for example, Dark Dagger and Grey Dagger. I have managed to distinguish them because I have found caterpillars of both in my garden and they are clearly different.

Anyway, last night I set my Mercury Vapour, Robinson trap in the garden to see what might be found. The list for the night was an encouraging early catch:

Micros: Light Brown Apple Moth 2; Eudonia angustea 1.

Macros: Poplar Hawkmoth 1; Garden Carpet 1; White-spotted Pug 1; Grey Pug 1; Brimstone Moth 1; Brindled Beauty 2; Swallow Prominent 1; Muslin Moth 1; Silver Y 1; Nut-tree Tussock 1; Mullein 3; Hebrew Character 2; Bright-line Brown-eye 1; Flame Shoulder 5.

Mullein, Shargacucullia verbasci

Swallow Prominent, Pheosia tremula

Muslin Moth, male, Diaphora mendica

Brindled Beauty, Lycia hictaria (Note the tiny yellow beastie on the left: could be a micro, could be the nymph of some other insect.)

Nut-tree Tussock, Colocasia coryli

Poplar Hawkmoth, Lacothoe populi

Eudonia angustea

Star Wars day did not turn out to be starry, but we avoided any wars – apart from one of our number taking a tumble in the wet and muddy conditions and getting “in the wars”. I was joined for the day by David, Laura, Daniel and Claire, and later on by Laura’s hubby, Mark. We met at 6:00: a reasonable start time; we will be hitting 5:30 from Wednesday for the next few weeks, before another reduction in the start time. The following nets were set:

The ringing station was set up in the car park. This photograph makes it look fairly benign but the recent rain, coupled with the deep dip between rides 3 and 4, made the conditions underfoot, as previously alluded to, treacherous. I, for one, was using a furling stick more as a walking support than something to lower or push up the nets.

Unfortunately, the catch was identical in size, if not in make-up, to Wednesday’s catch at Lower Moor Farm. The seventeen birds comprised: Marsh Tit (1); Robin 1(2); Blackcap 1; Chiffchaff 3(1); Willow Warbler 5(3). Totals: 10 birds ringed from 4 species and 7 birds retrapped from 4 species, making 17 birds processed from 5 species.

It was a good catch of Willow Warblers. Somerford Common is far and away our best site for this species, with 102 ringed on the site since 2013 and 19 retrapped birds. Most of those are caught in the Spring and Summer: we see far fewer on Autumn migration.

Of the three retrapped Willow Warblers, LEV498, was originally ringed as an adult in June 2020. Their typical lifespan, according to BTO BirdFacts, is two years, so the bird is doing well. When an 8g bird flies to and from the Ivory Coast / Ghana on an annual basis, survival of five years or more is impressive. That the longevity record is ten years and eight months from date of ringing is quite astonishing.

It was a slow morning but, fortunately, we had plenty to chat about to fill the time. However, at 11:15 we closed the nets and took down. With the six of us it didn’t take long and we were off site at just after midday. Let’s hope that we get some dry weather, some sun, and that the numbers improve, along with the access to the sites, before too long.

Despite the awful weather we did manage to get 19 full sessions in during the month.  I was particularly affected, only making four of eight scheduled sessions and only 102 birds processed by my team.  Last year I  managed seven April sessions.  Fortunately, others took up the slack so we ended up with the 19 full sessions, compared to 21 in April 2023.

The session numbers were reasonably similar, the main differences being in the number of birds retrapped: 2.5 more per session last year that this and the fact that we ringed more birds than last year, albeit from fewer species.

Although it shows that there was one species more processed last April, two of those species, Barn Owl and Buzzard, were processed at the RSPCA Oak & Furrows Rehab Centre, so weren’t wild caught.

Caught this April but not last were: Lesser Redpoll, Linnet, Marsh Tit, Meadow Pipit and Skylark.  Missing from last year, apart for the rehab birds, were Bullfinch and Garden Warbler.  

The star bird surely has to be the Skylark: the twelfth that we have caught since 2019 but, prior to that, we hadn’t caught any since the group split at the beginning of 2013.  Most seem to be shared between Andy’s Imber Ranges site or Jonny’s East Tytherton site.  The Meadow Pipits were also caught on Andy’s Imber site. Spring catches are unusual for us with this species: this is only the third April catch we have had: two birds in 2021 at Imber and four in 2015 at Blakehill Farm.  I need to mention the three Nuthatches processed: one was in the Wildlife Trust reserve at Green Lane Wood, the other was at Lower Moor Farm.  This is only the sixth Nuthatch caught there.  It is not surprising, it is not a woodland, but reconstructed gravel extraction pits.

Interestingly, whilst Blackcap numbers were over double the figures reached last April, all of the other summer visitor numbers were down on last year.  The slowness of arrival of summer migrants this year has been flagged up on the BTO’s BirdTrack reports: particularly Wheatear and Swallow, although we do seem to have plenty of them around in the Cotswold Water Park and environs.

One final event in April: I took on five more trainees. They are all C-permit holders from the Salisbury Plain Raptor Study Group. Their permits are restricted to ringing the pulli of Barn Owl, Tawny Owl, Little Owl and Kestrel, and they have all of the appropriate permissions from the BTO and Natural England.. They were the trainees of the legend that is Nigel Lewis. At the age of 88 (88! – I do not expect to be climbing ladders at age 80, let alone any older) he has retired from the world of bird ringing, leaving a massive legacy and huge body of work, but also leaving a team without a trainer. There are a number of other A-ringers in the group but no trainers, so I have stepped up and taken them on so they can continue to carry out their excellent work. I don’t expect to do much work with them, as I have plenty to do up north in the county, but will enjoy the odd trip out on Salisbury Plain.

Let’s hope that we have better weather this month and can get some good sessions in!

Over the last few years I have become increasingly disillusioned with the Constant Effort Site (CES) catches we have been getting, as the number and variety of catches have declined significantly across the reserve. From the first full year, 2014/15, until 2019/20, we averaged just under 52 birds processed each session across the full year. The average between 2020/21 and 2023/24 has consistently declined to 31.1, with the last year 1st April 2023 to 31st March 2024 averaging just 26.9 birds per session. The decline is almost entirely down to the reduction in catches in the CES sessions. Last year also recorded our lowest ever number of species, at 23. In 2022/23 we recorded 25 species but, prior to that, we averaged exactly 30 species per annum. I decided that if the pre-CES sessions were very low I would possibly retire the CES. I wouldn’t give up working at Lower Moor Farm: how could you give up the site that delivered a Yellow-browed Warbler, the second ringed in Wiltshire; an acredula Willow Warbler, the first ringed in Wiltshire (as far as I can ascertain) and a Firecrest. Instead I would expand the activity to different parts of the reserve to see whether the birds had relocated elsewhere away from the wildlife refuges. Our session at the end of March produced 30 birds and the one on the 17th April produced 36 birds. These are about average for this time of year, with winter visitors disappearing and summer visitors just beginning to arrive, so I decided to give the CES another year.

We have had discussion with the Wildlife Trust about the issues potentially affecting the suitability of the habitat and agreed on plans of action. Some has been carried out: the trees along ride 4 have been thinned and some have been topped out. There is more to do to both ride 2 and ride 4 but, of course, work cannot continue until after the breeding season, and the Trust has many differing priorities and limited resources. I am grateful for what has been done so far. The saddest loss to me is the absence of Lesser Whitethroat: we haven’t caught a single one at the site for over three years. Until 2019/20 we could reliably catch 10 of them each year: most of which were juveniles almost certainly reared on the site.

A final push to continuing with the CES this year was a request for help , last year we played host to Sarah Binnie, a PhD student at UEA, carrying out her PhD looking at the relationship between the prevalence of insect life and the number of juvenile birds being produced at CES sites. This year we have been asked to help her studies by deploying sticky traps alongside one of our net rides: just one trap per session and then send her photographs of the results. I put the trap in a tree along ride 4:

I was joined for the morning by Rosie, Miranda and Teresa. We were on site and had nets open by 6:30 and caught the first bird at 7:00. Just before Rosie had to leave for work we were joined by her new trainee, Ellie. It is great to see that the Trust are taking on some new staff. Hopefully more will follow.

Unfortunately the session was nowhere near as good as the previous one. It was quite remarkable in one way: over 70% of the catch were retrapped birds. That sounds grand, but we had just 12 retraps and 5 new birds in the catch over a six hour period. It is a good job we had plenty of other things to keep us occupied!

The list for the day was: Wren 1; Dunnock 1(2); Robin (2); Song Thrush 1; Cetti’s Warbler (2); Blackcap 1(2); Garden Warbler (2); Chiffchaff 1; Goldcrest (2). Totals: 5 birds ringed from 5 species and 12 birds retrapped from 6 species, making 17 birds processed from 9 species.

One of the Garden Warblers, ACJ5243, was ringed as a juvenile in August 2019, so that is five journeys to and from the Congo rainforest: a mere 6,000 mile round trip, so just the 30,000 miles so far!

So, whilst we didn’t have a massive haul, there was a lot going on. There was plenty of birdsong: Blackcap, Garden Warbler, Chiffchaff and Willow Warbler, as expected, but we also heard our first Cuckoo of the year. Not only that but I was treated to not one but two Hobby flying over Mallard Lake! The Great Crested Grebes were still courting on the Lake. The funniest thing we saw this morning was a Cormorant trying to swallow a huge Rainbow Trout. It took a long time before it managed to swallow it down.

There was a very pronounced irruption of damselflies: all too dark and dull to identify yet (okay, I could get the book out, but I have a lot of other stuff to write once I have finished this blog!). This one came and sat by me on the bench:

We carried out the six hours allocated to the session, packed up and were off site by 13:00. As we were packing up I discussed the situation with Miranda, and decided that we will keep the CES core but add some extra nets away from the CES nets, to test whether the birds have simply moved away from the CES site to other parts of the reserve. i.e. make more work for ourselves!

The last time I had a ringing session in the Firs was on the 9^th October 2022. Later that month the reserve was closed for Ash die-back mitigation work, carried out on the insistence of and by the preferred contractors of the site owners: the Hills Group. The site is managed on their behalf by the Wiltshire Wildlife Trust. It was originally going to be closed for six weeks whilst the contractors removed all of the Ash and a number of the mature Oak trees. The latter were by way of part payment for the work carried out. Unfortunately, the work dragged on, and the contractors left site, leaving the work unfinished and the site in an unsafe condition. As this was unexpected, the Trust had not budgeted for making the site safe, as it was not expected that they would have to do so. With the Trust having so many other projects on the go, the reserve was left in an unsafe condition and, therefore, remained closed. To date the reserve remains closed to the public. However, last Friday I got permission to restart ringing sessions in the Firs.

So, old friend? It was the first Braydon Forest site that I was given access to after achieving my C-permit. The Firs has been my most regular site for seeing Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, not that I have managed to catch any to put a ring on, but seeing them is special. The Firs was the first site in the Braydon Forest where we caught Spotted Flycatcher: two juveniles in August 2016 and a potential breeding pair in June 2019. Subsequently we have caught them in all of the Braydon Forest sites except Webb’s Wood. Any site that allows me to work with stunning birds like that is definitely a friend!

Why foe? It is known as the Braydon Bog: the wettest site for the longest time in most years. However, the real issue is the hill! It seems like such a gentle slope, but it is deceptive. Working the Firs is absolutely the hardest work of any of my sites: a dozen trips up and down that slope, at 500m per round trip, is hard work for someone of my advanced years and arthritic ankle!

Anyway, despite those drawbacks it is a reliable site and I live in hope of a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker ending up in my nets one day! So this morning I was joined by Miranda, Teresa and Andy for a session. We met at 6:00 and set 5 x 18m 5-Shelf nets and 2 x 12m 5-Shelf nets along the central glade, in 2 rides from the bottom of the hill. No photographic diagram: neither Ordnance Survey nor Google Maps show the current state of the wood.

We started catching as soon as the nets were open and caught fairly regularly throughout the morning. We did have to call a halt to proceedings due to a passing shower between 10:00 and 10:30, so missed out on one round. However, there were no birds in the nets in the round after the shower, so no harm done.

The catch for the day was: Blue Tit 2(1); Great Tit 2; Coal Tit 2; Long-tailed Tit 3; Wren 3; Dunnock 1; Robin 2(1); Song Thrush 2; Blackbird 1(1); Blackcap 6; Chiffchaff 5. Totals 29 birds ringed from 11 species and 3 birds retrapped from 3 species, making 32 species processed from 11 species.

For comparison, the average catch size in this wood during April is 22.4 and the highest was 33 back in 2016. Interestingly, that session comprised 30 ringed and 3 retrapped from 11 species. We were one bird off: the Blackbird that disentangled itself before Miranda could get to it!

After a satisfactory session, we closed the nets and took down at 11:30 and left site by midday.

Taking a break from writing up my annual reports for the Wiltshire Wildlife Trust and Forestry England, I was pleased to see that the wind was forecast to drop to a level that would enable the team to get out. With the incoming summer migrants I wanted to go to a site where I knew there was a good chance of catching some, so I chose Lower Moor Farm. One thing about the wind: it was forecast to come from the North / North-West: it certainly did, it was a very cold wind. Rosie actually had to scrape ice off her windscreen! Mind, that was at 5:00 when leaving home to join us. We met at 6:00: Rosie, Teresa, Andy and myself. Rosie left for work before 9:00.

We set the CES nets plus a couple of additions to see how they fared:

Whilst we were setting up there was a lot of birdsong. In the shrubby area to the east of ride 1 there were at least three Willow Warbler singing, Chiffchaff were also making their presence felt but the absolute, overpowering, star of the morning symphony (cacophony?) were the Cetti’s Warblers. There were at least four singing males in our small area. To think that the first was only caught in 2015 (I checked with the ringer who had worked the site for the longest time before I took it over: he had never heard Cetti’s on site, let alone caught and ringed any) and now they have territories all along the main path and the bushes that line the stream that forms the border between Wiltshire and Gloucestershire.

Things started with a nice catch of nine birds: including two of the Willow Warblers adjacent to ride 1 plus a retrapped Cetti’s Warbler. The next two rounds were similar, but then the breeze started to get up and the nets became more visible and the catch dropped away. By 10:30 the nets were billowing and I decided to close the nets and take down.

The list for the session was: Nuthatch 1(1); Treecreeper 1; Blue Tit 1(1); Great Tit 1(4); Long-tailed Tit 1(1); Wren 1(1); Dunnock (1); Robin 1(1); Cetti’s Warbler (2); Blackcap 9(2); Chiffchaff 1(2); Willow Warbler 1(1); Goldcrest 1. Totals: 19 birds ringed from 11 species and 17 birds retrapped from 11 species, making 36 birds processed from 13 species.

My only disappointment: Miranda on a visit to the reserve last weekend had seen both Blackcap and Garden Warbler. She did say that the Blackcap was being particularly belligerent towards the Garden Warbler, perhaps they have driven them away? I do know that if I want to lure for Garden Warbler I don’t need to lure for Blackcap, as they will come to investigate whether that particular antagonist is in the vicinity. It is an interesting antipathy: whilst there is some habitat crossover, Blackcap prefer taller vegetation than Garden Warbler.

The Cetti’s are resident and, within that, incredibly site faithful: AAL0354 was ringed in May 2020 and has been recaptured at least once every year since in the same location. The other recapture, BPA 2585, was only ringed in May last year and this is the third time it has been recaptured since, again, in the same location.

Cetti’s Warbler, Cettia cetti, AAL0354 on the day it was ringed

There was some good birding this morning, as well as the trout, that Mallard Lake is stocked with by the fishing syndicate who lease the rights from the Trust, doing their leap and splash antics. Some of them are absolutely huge.

My favourite birds of the morning (outside of those we caught), were a pair of Gadwall: I cannot remember seeing Gadwall at Lower Moor Farm before. The Grey Herons have got young now: and there was a fabulous racket going on from them. We had a Sparrowhawk doing its wing flutter display flight overhead and, as I was leaving site, a male took off from the ground where the Willow Warblers had been singing, and flew up the path in front of me. Lovely views for a few hundred metres.

The Mute Swans were very active on the lake: with a lot of aggression and posturing. For once it was focused on other swans and not on the Canada Geese.

Mid-session a couple of Swallow made an appearance over Mallard Lake. They didn’t stay long. Rosie said that on Monday, when the weather was at its worst, there was a large mixed flock of hirundines hawking over that same lake. I am looking forward to, hopefully, ringing a few: it has been a while.

We were all away from site before midday after a pleasant, if cold, morning.

David, Laura, Adam and I met up at the Whitworth Building, on the western side of Blakehill Farm, this morning at 6:30 (Bjork wasn’t available!). There was a light breeze forecast, coming from the South or South South West over the course of the morning, picking up as midday approached. We set the following nets:

Our ringing station was adjacent to the Whitworth Building: where the white car can be seen on the photo. I set the two-shelf nets along the hedgerow where we caught the Meadow Pipits last time on site. Unfortunately, they caught absolutely nothing today.

We set the main nets in reverse order to the way I have numbered them on the diagram. Net 6 is always a bit of a disappointment, but I keep hoping, and this morning, before we had even finished tying off the net, a Chiffchaff flew in: our first bird of the morning. However, after that it did catch two more birds, but they were same day retraps and we don’t process a bird more than once in a session.

Unfortunately, as the title says, it was a very quiet session. Quite remarkably: not one Blue or Great Tit. I cannot remember the last time that happened here. The key issue was the wind. Because the breeze was forecast to come from behind the bushes, we set them building side of the bushes (I didn’t fancy extracting all those nets from what are, primarily, bramble bushes): the breeze got up, much higher than was forecast, quite quickly. Whilst the nets did not billow to the point where the pockets were blowing out, or that it became dangerous for the birds, they were too obvious and easy for the birds to avoid. Had I known it would be like that I would have chosen a woodland site.

It was a very pleasant session despite the lack of birds, and we had lots of time to chat, especially after 9:00 when Laura’s partner Mark and their other son, Daniel, arrived: the pair having been to see the Zutons in Bristol Friday night and still buzzing about it: Daniel sporting his tour T-shirt. Their contribution in helping pack stuff away at the end was much appreciated.

Back to the birds: we had mainly Chiffchaff, with Wren and Long-tailed Tit being the next most frequent. In fact, all of the birds caught, until we caught three Blackcap at 9:55, were birds that took the smallest, AA rings. Two B-ring Dunnocks were the only other ring sizes needed.

Our bird of the morning was our first Whitethroat of the year: the earliest that I have ever caught by 10 days.

The list for the session was: Long-tailed Tit 2(2); Wren 1(3); Dunnock 2; Blackcap 3; Whitethroat (1); Chiffchaff 5. Totals: 13 birds ringed from 5 species and 6 bird retrapped from 3 species, making 19 birds processed from 6 species.

It was a pretty good morning for birding as well. A Red Kite spent a long time following a Jackdaw, occasionally swooping at it, always staying above and just behind it. I am pretty sure it was trying to drive the Jackdaw into a position where it could seize it. We had another Red Kite circling over the plateau later in the morning. Apart from that, we were treated to Curlew displaying and making their bubbling call all morning. At one point a pair of them flew from Blakehill towards Purton / Red Lodge: both places where they are regularly seen foraging for food in the fields. The bushes were alive with bird song: mainly Chiffchaff and Willow Warbler. If the breeze had been less strong we might have had a much better catch. Net ride 2, in particular: I stood and watched birds flitting in and out of that hedgerow for 5 minutes without any of them hitting the net. The net was just too obvious.

We packed up at 11:15: all of the nets were empty as we were closing up. The team is getting very efficient and we were packed away and leaving site by midday. On my way out of the site I stopped to chat with one of the team at the Oak & Furrows centre, who was entering the site as I was leaving. She was on her way to pick up some more supplies as she is currently foster mother to a number of leverets! Oak & Furrows has had an almost complete turnover of staff and volunteers in the last 6 months, so it was nice to be told that they would still like my help going forward: just as well, having purchased a one metre rule for measuring Red Kite and Buzzard wings!