Author: Braydon Forest & Beyond

Despite some foul weather this February we did manage to get out for 20 full sessions, but also there were several aborted sessions. The overall resulting figures were similar but there were a lot of differences in the make up of the figures:

Given how close the overall numbers are, we actually ringed 50 more birds this February and recaptured 43 fewer. Also, although the total number of species were very similar, with just one more species recaptured than last year, the total number of species processed in the two periods was 38. Andy and I both tried out new sites: although our first catches weren’t huge, both look promising for the future.

Added to the list this year were: Bullfinch, House Sparrow, Kingfisher, Pied Wagtail, Snipe and Treecreeper. Missing from the list were Cetti’s Warbler, Green Woodpecker, Jay, Meadow Pipit, Skylark, Sparrowhawk and Stonechat.

There were plenty of ups and downs in the numbers of the species caught in both years. Although the Blue and Great Tit numbers overall were quite similar we actually ringed far more of both species than we did last year. With Blue Tits, as I noted in one of my recent posts, plenty of ringers have been bemoaning the lack of juvenile / second calendar year (2CY) birds this winter, but the West Wilts Group does seem to have bucked the trend, in February at least: 39 adults and 139 2CY Blue Tits ringed: 23% adults vs 77% 2CY.

Not surprising that we didn’t catch any Meadow Pipits: 21 of last year’s 22 were caught in a single session at Blakehill Farm. That was also where we caught the two Stonechat. Unfortunately, it has just been far too windy for me to run sessions there. The Skylark was caught at East Hill Farm but, similarly, no session there this February. Not worried about the lack of Jays: after three in January.

There were a couple of highlights: Jonny caught his first Snipe at any of his sites.

It isn’t the first Snipe he has ever ringed, but his only other was six years ago at Blakehill Farm. I must have another go for them at Blakehill in the next couple of weeks.

My highlight was the second Pied Wagtail for my garden:

I know I have done loads as a trainee, but in your own garden it is rather special. A shame the one in Laura’s garden yesterday managed to avoid the net.

Hopefully the weather will improve for March! I, for one, am sick of constantly tramping through mud and my equipment being constantly filthy.

Back to the muddiest site that we have this winter. I keep going back in the hope that we might catch a Redpoll, Siskin, Brambling or two. Once again, we were disappointed on that. However, it was a very enjoyable session. I was joined from the start by Rosie, Laura and Adam, plus new potential team member, Ellie, coming along for her first taster session. It was a very cold, very foggy start. Nevertheless, the forecast was for it to lift and for the sun to break through, so I was happy to get set up and run the session. The sun didn’t break through until 9:30 but, after that, the fog cleared quickly and the sun was very welcome and very warming.

We started setting the usual nets. I then got a distress call from Justine and Mark, from the Salisbury Plain Raptor Group, who were also scheduled to join us for the morning. They had got lost in the fog! I told them to find a landmark and let me know what it was: not easy when the mobile signals in rural Wiltshire as so, so bad! Anyway, they let me know where they were and I went to their rescue and led them to site, whilst the rest of the team continued to set our nets:

We had the nets open before 8:00 but it seems that the birds don’t like moving around much in freezing fog any more than people do! It took a while to get going, but eventually we started to catch. The start was promising: first birds out of the nets was a new female Nuthatch, two retrapped Robins and a new male Blackbird. Rosie got to ring the Nuthatch and process one of the Robins before heading off to work.

Naturally, we started catching at the feeding station area, net rides 1 to 4, first. Rides 5 and 6, which used to be such busy nets were, yet again, very, very quiet. They produced the two Long-tailed Tits that we processed but, apart from them, just a Wren that decided to get itself trapped again after we had just finished processing it for the first time.

There was good variety in the catch and the list for the session was: Nuthatch 1(2); Treecreeper 1; Blue Tit 4(4); Great Tit 2(2); Coal Tit 1(2); Marsh Tit (2); Long-tailed Tit 1(1); Wren 1; Robin 1(3); Blackbird 1; Chiffchaff 1; Goldcrest 1; Chaffinch 3. Totals:18 birds ringed from 12 species and 16 birds retrapped from 7 species, making 34 birds processed from 13 species.

We are having a really good start to the year for Nuthatch at Somerford Common: eight processed already. The most we have ever processed there in an entire year is 12. We look to be well on course to surpass that. Since I started working at Somerford, back in 2012, we have only processed more than that in four of the 11 full years. It is our best site for the species, so it will be interesting to see how the rest of the year develops.

It was nice not to be overwhelmed by Blue and Great Tits, and to get 13 species at this time of year is very pleasing. We did have the first Somerford Chiffchaff of the year, but no sign yet of any other summer species.

We had been joined part way through the session by Mark, Laura’s husband, and their friend, Alex, so when we decided to pack up at 11:45 it took very little time for us to clear away and get off site, which we managed by 12:20. I am pleased to say that Ellie enjoyed her first taster session and will be joining me again very soon.

So that is three early morning starts in a row for me this week: tomorrow I have scheduled a long lie-in!

New sites are always worth exploring. However, it is a good idea to have a reconnaissance visit beforehand: to see where the birds are, how they access the site and, therefore, the best places to set the nets. Laura has been asking me to carry out a session at her property for quite a while now. With the weather scuppering all previous attempts, but looking fine for this morning, we agreed to try it out today. However, that, having not visited the site before, meant that I (we) was trusting to luck with my net setting.

I arrived on site at 7:30 and we set the following nets:

The first bird out of the nets was a Goldfinch: encouraging. Unfortunately, that was the only one we caught this morning. However, that was down to how I placed the nets. There were plenty of them around but they just flew around or over the net. I have already decided what changes to make to make it less easy for them to avoid being caught.

Unsurprisingly, the major part of the catch comprised Blue Tits. Equally unsurprising, there were no retrapped birds. The list for the morning was: Blue Tit 11: Great Tit 1; Long-tailed Tit 1; Dunnock 2; Robin 1; Blackbird 1; Goldfinch 1. Total: 18 birds ringed and processed from 7 species.

There were plenty of bounce outs and a couple of other near misses: most frustratingly was a Pied Wagtail that flew up to the net, had a look, and flew away. There was plenty coming in and out of the garden: including a couple each of Great Spotted Woodpecker and Woodpigeon.

During the quiet times I showed Laura my method for net-mending: one of those tedious, never-ending tasks but, with new 18m nets costing close to £140, it is pretty essential to try and keep them going for as long as possible. Laura has volunteered to help me out, and I am very grateful.

I think that the site will be very productive: I know where to set my nets now to maximise the catch and, having coffee and bacon butties on hand, it is an absolute must for repeat sessions!

We closed the nets at midday reasonably satisfied with the result, but looking forward to having another go now I have a better idea of where to set the nets.

After yesterday’s high winds and torrential rain, it was rather nice to get out this morning. I had been out on Monday afternoon to top up the feeders, so was hopeful of a reasonable catch.

I was joined by Miranda for the morning and we met at 7:00. Because there was only the two of us, I restricted the nets to just those adjacent to the feeders:

We had the nets open by 7:30 and started catching straight away. Unsurprisingly, the majority of the catch comprised Blue and Great Tits. It is what I was expecting. What I wasn’t expecting was how many were unringed. We caught 20 Blue Tits in total: 18 unringed and just two retrapped. The two retraps were ringed one year and two years ago. Then 17 Great Tits: 12 unringed and five retrapped. The oldest from just two years ago.

Also, given the number of people commenting on how few juvenile Blue Tits they are catching, it was, once again, good to see the ratio of Adult : Juvenile birds. In February, my team has ringed 84 Blue Tits at a ratio of 16 adults : 68 juveniles. 20% to 80%. Today’s session produced 3 adults to 15 juveniles: 17% adults and 83% juveniles.

What I am finding this year is how early both Blue and Great Tits are coming into breeding condition. If it wasn’t for Ellie mentioning it several weeks ago, having found a Blue Tit and a Great Tit developing brood patches, I wouldn’t have thought to look. Now that I am looking, it is surprising how many I am finding. I suppose with males setting up territories, Great Tit males seem to be singing all over the place, their testosterone levels must be elevated and that, no doubt, has resulted in the number sporting quite obvious cloacal protuberances. Somewhat more surprising, to me at least, are the number of females that we have caught that are clearly already developing brood patches. According to the BTO BirdFacts database, both Blue Tit and Great Tit first clutches are usually laid towards the end of April, with the earliest record for Blue Tit being 12th April, and for Great Tit, 10th April.

One thing it has meant is that I have been able to show Miranda what she should be looking for over the next few months as we catch more birds.

In our second round we caught a female Chaffinch: unfortunately she was suffering from Fringilla papillomavirus, so we released her unringed, thinking that was likely to be it for the day. However, at 9:40 we caught another two, then next round we caught another and, in our last round at 11:45, we caught yet another. That brings our total in Red Lodge for this month to six. Equalling our best monthly total for the site. To put it in perspective, our average catch of them is 2 per month.

So, of the five we actually caught, the only female was the only one we couldn’t process.

Another interesting catch was our sixth Marsh Tit ringed in 2025. That is the best start to the year that we have ever had! Previously we have had four, in 2020 and 2023, but the majority, unsurprisingly, are ringed in July through September, as the breeding season progresses. As for Red Lodge, we hadn’t ringed any in January and February until 2019. Since then we have had just one ringed in each year during January and February, so this is this year’s contribution to the new tradition (which was missed last year).

If you happen to be walking in Red Lodge and see a Marsh Tit with a brown ring over a pale blue ring on its right leg, it was the bird ringed today and is ring number BEH0597. Drop me a line if you see it, let me know where when, and I will be eternally grateful.

The list for today was: Great Spotted Woodpecker (1); Blue Tit 18(2); Great Tit 12(5); Coal Tit 1; Marsh Tit 1; Long-tailed Tit 1(1); Chaffinch 4. Totals: 37 birds ringed from 6 species and 9 birds retrapped from 4 species, making 46 birds processed from 7 species.

With the breeze starting to get up at 11:00 and, despite the intermittent bouts of warm sun, we were getting pretty cold, the number of birds had fallen away so we did one last round, which produced a decent round of eight birds. By the time we had processed them another five had hit the nets, so we closed them as we extracted the birds, processed them and then took down. Fortunately, with just four nets to take down, it didn’t take long to pack away, and we were off site soon after midday.

We arrived on site at 7:00 this morning: David, Laura , Daniel and myself started to set up the nets. First we set them along the Heronry Ride and then headed down to the Wildlife Refuge to set the nets there. We were greeted by some very familiar faces on the other side of the gate: what looked like Herdwick sheep. I thought that the sheep they had were mules but these certainly didn’t look like them. It was too late to change our plans, so our first task was to move them out of the netting area and erect a temporary barrier to keep them away from the nets. Unfortunately, their presence meant that I could not set all of the nets I had planned, another two rides, another 75 metres of net, and the catch suffered accordingly.

We set the following nets:

Ride 3 cut short so we could block off access to the sheep. The first round was entirely misleading, as we had quite a reasonable haul. Adam and Mark arrived at about 9:00, Adam having felt unwell at 6:00 in the morning! I know how he feels – every time at 6:00 in the morning! I wonder how he will feel when it gets to 4:30am or earlier?

It was a very similar session to the last one that David and I did at Lower Moor on the first day of this month. The catch was: Blue Tit 1(1); Great Tit 1(1); Long-tailed Tit 2(1); Dunnock 1(1); Robin 1(1); Song Thrush 1; Chiffchaff 1(1); Goldcrest 3; Chaffinch (1); Bullfinch (1). Totals: 11 birds ringed from 8 species and 8 birds retrapped from 8 species, making 19 birds processed from 10 species.

I am running these early sessions to see how the site is shaping up for the year ahead. It is my Constant Effort Site, which means the same nets are positioned in the same places for each session and open for a consistent period of time. I have committed to the project since 2015. However, the catches have declined by some 40% over the last four years. It is a big commitment: 12 sessions, roughly every 10 days, between the beginning of May / end of August, sometimes first week of September. This reduces availability for working other sites and I have to decide if it is worth continuing.

Another factor is providing enough birds, from enough species, to give my trainees the experience they need to progress. If you take today’s results: my three T-permit holders got just six birds each. I want them to have between 15 and 20 birds each in a session, but would settle for 12 or 13. The Wildlife Trust have carried out a number of habitat management changes that I suggested, and I am extremely grateful that they have done so. In return, it is only right that I do enough to evaluate the impact of their efforts. Hence there will be a minimum of one visit per month.

Anyway, with the catch dying off by 11:00, we started packing up at 11:15, had everything down and packed away quite quickly and I was home by just after midday for once. It was really enjoyable session, because I work with really nice people and we filled the gaps in the catches with a great deal of chat and laughter!

* A little codicil to yesterday’s report: at the same time as we were catching our 19 birds, Ellie was catching and ringing in the farmhouse garden at the same time. She caught 21 birds: Blue Tit 9(7); Great Tit 2(2) and Long-tailed Tit (1): I think that I am happier with our catch!!