Ringing In The Braydon Forest & Beyond

I told the team that we would start at 6:00 this morning only, having awoken early and unable to doze comfortably, I was actually on site by 5:30. As I pulled into Sandpool Farm entrance I was greeted with this:

Half-a-dozen empty beer cans and assorted associated debris dumped on the grass beside the gate. What is wrong with people? Why are some people just so thoughtless? The Trust and volunteers will now have to clean up after them. Should I also mention the kind dog owner who had deposited a bag of dog poo on one of the picnic tables for someone else to remove? Looks like I have.

I was joined by Miranda and Rosie and, just a little later, by Steph and her daughters, Lillie and Bea. Lillie was the youngest ever ringer to do any ringing with me: starting out at age 6! It has been a while since they have all been out with me but I was delighted to see that she has retained all of her skills.

We set our usual CES nets. The weather was interesting: we started in fog, which started lifting at about 7:00, then the sun broke through until 10:00, when it all clouded over and we had a sharp burst of rain, that disrupted things for 30 minutes, before the sun came out again. Unfortunately, as the sun came out, the breeze got up and started gusting quite strongly. Remarkably, none of it really adversely affected our activity, apart from hiding from the rain for a short while.

The first couple of rounds were quiet: three and four birds respectively, but the third round was 11 birds and the fifth round produced 12 birds. After the rain, a couple of reasonable rounds before we closed the nets just before midday.

The list for the day was: Treecreeper [2](1); Blue Tit 1[8](1); Great Tit [2](1); Wren [3]; Robin [2](5); Blackcap [11](1); Garden Warbler [1]; Chiffchaff [1](2); Bullfinch [2]. Totals: 1 adult ringed, 32 juveniles ringed from 9 species and 21 birds retrapped from 6 species, making 54 birds processed from 9 species. To be clear: 6 of the retrapped birds were juveniles ringed in previous CES sessions.

This is a big improvement on last year’s CES 9: Wren [1]; Dunnock (3); Robin (2); Blackbird (1); Blackcap [2]; Chiffchaff 1[3]. Totals: 1 adult ringed, 6 juveniles ringed from 3 species and 6 birds retrapped from 3 species, making 13 birds processed from 6 species. I compared the weather for both sessions and, I have to say that last year’s weather was actually better than we had today!

We have caught very few Bullfinch so far this year: before today we had ringed just six of them. Today we caught three: one was an adult male but, unfortunately, it was showing signs of Fringilla papillomavirus on both legs. It wasn’t pronounced or well advanced but we never process sick birds and, as FPV affects the legs, it would be even more crass to put a ring on it. The beauty of today’s catch was that the two birds we did catch were our first juvenile Bullfinches of the year:

Juvenile Bullfinch, Pyrrhula pyrrhula

In case anyone is concerned, its tail was all there, just hiding behind my hand!

I didn’t manage to get a photo of it, but we were rather lucky to see a Lesser Emperor dragonfly, Anax parthenope. Lucky because there were several photographers on site, with their huge large lenses, trying to see them, let alone get photographs, but without luck.

Rosie had to leave at 8:00 to get to Devizes for a Wildlife Trust meeting, and Steph and her girls left after the rain shower, just after 11:00, as Steph had work to get to as well, leaving Miranda and me to see it through to the end. I think that the hardest work of the morning fell to Miranda. She was on willow catkin removal duties from our 3 x 18m net ride, ride 5, whilst I took down the other 3 x 18m net ride. We then took down the rest of the nets and packed away, with all finished and ready to leave site by 13:00. All in all, a very satisfactory session.

With the weather set fair for this morning I decided that I didn’t want to hide in a woodland and, so, because the wind was scheduled to be light and from the south-west, I decided to go back to Ravensroost Meadows, hoping that it might be a bit better than last time (just 16 birds). The team worked in relays today: Rosie and Miranda joined me at 5:30, and we got the nets set up. Laura joined us at 7:45, having got Adam off to school, then Rosie left to go to work at 8:00. Miranda was having some stuff delivered, so left at 11:00, and Laura and I shut the nets at 11:30 and took down. We had a slightly different net set today:

We had a Robin fly into the nets before they had been opened. Our first round, at 7:15, got us quite excited! Our last session at this site produced just 16 birds: our first round this morning produced 14 birds from nine species. Unfortunately, our excitement was a little optimistic. After that each round produced with two or three birds, if any at all, and by the time we shut the nets at 11:30, we had caught 27 birds. Obviously a huge improvement on last time.

That doesn’t mean that it wasn’t fun, it was. The weather started off dry but very misty and the mist hung around until gone 9:00. It was always warm but, once the sun broke through the mist, it was nicely warm. The wind was as light as forecast and just didn’t get blowy at all until after we had closed the nets.

We were really pleased with the variety of the first round: Blackcap, Blue Tit, Chiffchaff, Garden Warbler, Great Tit, Robin, Whitethroat, Willow Warbler and Wren. As we started processing the birds it was nice to find so many juveniles in the catch but, more fun for me, was that a number of the adults had started their post-breeding moult. I might be a sad individual, but I really enjoy looking at the different moult strategies and looking for aberrant individuals. Like this:

Willow Warbler, Phylloscopus trochilus, Primary moult is usually sequential, starting from the centre of the wing working out to the outer edge of the wing. This one has clearly not followed that pattern.

The list from today was: Blue Tit 2(1); Great Tit [1]; Wren 1[2](1); Robin [2]; Blackcap 1[1]; Garden Warbler 1; Whitethroat 1[3]; Chiffchaff 4[3](1); Willow Warbler 1[1]. Totals: 11 adults ringed from 7 species, 13 juveniles ringed from 7 species and 3 birds retrapped from 3 species, making 27 birds processed from 9 species.

After Miranda left at 11:00, whilst sitting down between rounds, Laura called my attention to a Kestrel hunting over the field to the north of the ringing station. We watched it hover and then plunge into the grass. It disappeared for about 15 seconds before flying off to a dead tree in the hedgerow to the east. Through my binoculars we had a clear view of it devouring its brunch! I can honestly say that I cannot remember the last time I saw a successful Kestrel hunt.

The catches remain smaller than we used to get but I think that key to that is a significant reduction in the numbers of insects flying around. Why this should be the case in this area, managed by the Wildlife Trust, full of wildflowers, available moisture and hedgerow vegetation, is beyond me. We saw a few Meadow Brown butterflies, where I used to see swarms. There was the odd Large White and Gatekeeper and a solitary Marbled White. We had a couple of Emperor dragonflies over the pond and good numbers of Common Blue damselflies, but no bees, very few flies or beetles. Mind, Miranda did have a shield bug drop onto her cardigan, and it stayed there like a living brooch for a large part of the morning.

Laura and I packed away at about 11:45, having processed three Chiffchaff caught in the last round, and we were away from site just before 12:30. A very pleasant morning.

Without going into details, the last few weeks have been hard, and certain events have drained the enjoyment I get from ringing out of my system. Today remedied all of that! I had planned to go to Red Lodge until I saw the weather forecast: dry, sun and virtually no wind, so I changed venue to Blakehill Farm. The plateau will be out of bounds until the end of July, in case there are Curlew chicks out there, so we went to the south west of the reserve, to the fields adjacent to the Whitworth building. Driving down to the building I couldn’t help but be struck by just how tall the grassy vegetation has become on the plateau: tall enough for a Roe Deer hind to be stood there and have only her head and ears showing. In the decade that I have been visiting this site I have never seen it so tall. It has to be this combination of alternating rain and sun that is pushing this growth along so quickly.

I was joined for the morning by the Childs family: Laura and Adam are T-permit holders, Mark and Daniel are extremely valuable helpers. We met at 5:30 and set the following nets:

We had the nets open by 6:30 and the first birds were caught at 6:40: a Blue Tit, a Chiffchaff, a Dunnock and a Wren. So far, so unsurprising. Next round: two Blue Tits and a Dunnock. Ho hum, how predictable! Third round we had three of these:

Juvenile Chaffinch, Fringilla coelebs

These are our first juvenile Chaffinch of the year. That was a lovely catch. We caught a male and a female at this same site back in March, I wonder if they were the parents?

Round four produced a couple of Chiffchaff and two of these:

Juvenile Whitethroat, Curruca communis

Again, our first juvenile Whitethroats of the year. We ended up with six Whitethroats: two adults and four juveniles. Things went a little slower after that but, on the penultimate round, we caught this:

Juvenile Willow Warbler, Phylloscopus trochilus

Sorry for the repetition but, again, this is our first juvenile Willow Warbler of the year. It might look a bit tatty but it has nearly completed his post-fledging moult, although it still had lots of body feathers in pin. It was a lovely session: lots of first for the year, what could possibly top it off. Well, in that penultimate session we also trapped this:

Adult female Redstart, Phoenicurus phoenicurus (photo by Daniel Childs)

Although we catch them regularly on passage in the autumn, two things about this bird are special. Firstly, we have never caught one on this side of the reserve before. We always catch them in the perimeter track hedgerow on the opposite side of the reserve. Secondly, this female, although she has started moulting, still had a properly engorged brood patch. It is entirely possible that she is breeding close by. That is not something that I expected. I don’t rule out the possibility that her young fledged in the last day or so and her brood patch just hasn’t started to regress yet, but the other possibility is tantalisingly exciting.

The catch for the session was: Blue Tit 1[3](1); Great Tit [1]; Wren 1[1]; Dunnock 1(1); Redstart 1; Whitethroat 2[4]; Chiffchaff [7]; Willow Warbler [1]; Chaffinch [3]. Totals: 6 adults ringed from 5 species, 20 juveniles ringed from 7 species and 2 birds retrapped from 2 species, making 28 birds processed from 9 species.

Not the biggest catch but just a lovely session with good people. We closed the nets at 11:30 and took down. Earlier in the session, Mark had noticed that my rear off-side tyre was looking a little under-pressured (as opposed to under pressure). Returning to the car, having taken everything down, it was clear that the tyre had seriously deflated. I carry an electric tyre pump and, fortunately, so do Mark and Laura, because mine was buried under my equipment. After a good 10 minutes getting it back to a decent pressure, so I could drive it home (Mark found the culprit: a nail embedded in the tread) we left site at about 12:30.

As well as a lovely morning with the birds, I was blown away with the huge variety of flowering plants in the two meadows. Particularly the one directly behind the building. I really need to spend some time getting to grips with meadow flowers, as my ID skills are just not good enough, but I am pretty certain that there were in the region of 50 species of wildflower in that meadow. There was a reasonable number of butterflies on the wing: predictably, lots of Meadow Brown, a couple of Large Whites, a few Ringlets and also some Gatekeeper but the best Lepidopteran seen today was the Snout: a moth that looks like a brown Vulcan bomber. If you are in the area, it is well worth a visit.

Not the biggest, but the nicest session I have had for a very long time. The catch was lovely and the company was excellent. Now, if this weather stays like this, and I can get out to Brown’s Farm for some Yellowhammer and Linnet, life will be very good!

Unfortunately, due primarily to bad weather, I ran out of space to run CES 7. I could have done it on Monday but, after events over the weekend, I decided that I wanted to stay away from the public and ringed in my garden. At the time, the last day in its window was Wednesday, 10^th July, and I had planned to run it then. On Monday the forecast was that it would be dry but, unfortunately, the weather decided to change and foil the plan: with rain between 8:00 and 10:00 in the morning and very strong winds. With today looking dry and sunny, I decided to make sure that CES 8 went ahead. I arrived on site at 5:00 and started setting the nets. Laura joined me at 5:30 and we had everything set by 6:30.

It wasn’t a very busy session: the results were better than CES7 last year (17 birds from 8 species) but worse than CES8 last year (37 birds from 13 species): perhaps that is the result of running the session so early in the window this year.

The list for the day was: Treecreeper [2]; Blue Tit (1); Great Tit (1); Long-tailed Tit 1(1); Wren [3](1); Dunnock [3]; Robin [1](2); Song Thrush [1]; Cetti’s Warbler [2]; Blackcap 2[2](2). Totals: 3 adults ringed from 2 species, 14 juveniles ringed from 7 species and 8 birds retrapped from 6 species, making 25 birds processed from 10 species. Of the retrapped birds, the Long-tailed Tit and the two Robins were juveniles ringed at previous CES sessions.

We had three highlights:

Our first juvenile Treecreeper, Certhia familiaris, of the year. We then caught a second juvenile later in the session.

Our first juvenile Cetti’s Warbler of the year:

Juvenile Cetti’s Warbler, Cettia cetti. We also then caught a second juvenile later in the session.

The third (sorry, no photo) was our first juvenile Song Thrush of the year.

We had to watch our feet this morning: there were lots of froglets moving through the undergrowth, and so many snails everywhere. We saw plenty of dragonflies: particularly a couple of stunning male Emperors, and loads of damselflies everywhere. They were primarily Common Blues. There were several butterfly species around: Small White, Ringlet, Meadow Brown, Speckled Wood and a solitary Red Admiral.

The wind started to get up at 10:30 and by 11:30 it was blowing quite hard, so we shut the nets and took down, leaving site at about 12:30.

After what can only be described as a ghastly weekend, for a wide range of reasons, not least the nerve shredding last 10 minutes of the second-half of England vs Switzerland (I was always confident of the penalties) and wet and windy weather, I decided to take a chance on the forecast that said it would be dry with low wind in our area until mid-morning and do some ringing. My garden is, unfortunately, a bit of a wind tunnel. I think it is because we have a detached double garage with a three metre gap to the house. I have planted plenty of trees, alongside those that were already there, but it doesn’t get any better and I can only open my nets in calm conditions.

The garden has been alive with birds, eating me out of house and home, for months now, so I was hopeful of a reasonable catch. Just in the last week we have had plenty of Jackdaws, Starlings, Greenfinch, Goldfinch, Chaffinch, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Wren, Robin, Blackbird, Dunnock, Woodpigeon, Collared Dove and Stock Dove. I set the nets, just two x six metre, five-shelf Merlin nets, either side of my feeding station and furled them ready for action. I had planned to open them about 6:00 but I woke up at ridiculous o’clock (4:00) and, after struggling to doze for a bit longer, got up and topped up the feeders, set out some mealworms in Potter traps and opened the nets.

I was hoping for a nice catch of Greenfinch and Goldfinch, as we have had plenty of adults and juveniles coming into the garden, and it is about the only place that I regularly catch them amongst my sites.

The catch was decidedly weird in its timings: a small fall of birds, followed by a long gap, followed by another small fall, etc. First round produced three juvenile Blue Tits and three juvenile Robins. I was very pleased with the juvenile Robins: I had seen one hopping around the place but not as many as I would have liked. In the end I caught five this morning: two were recently fledged and hadn’t started their post-fledging moult, two were undergoing their moult and the fifth had actually completed their post-juvenile moult and was in full adult plumage. Its wings were very fresh and its tail was fresh and very pointed, hence I could reliably age it as a bird of this year.

Unsurprisingly, the Blue Tits kept coming in in twos and threes, until I had processed eleven of them: ten ringed and one retrap. What I remarked upon on the UK Ringers Facebook Group is that, as well as being a ringer, I have been a member of the BTO’s Garden Birdwatch scheme for even longer than I have been ringing. In that scheme you make a note of the largest number of a particular species you see at any one time. So whilst my ringing return is eleven birds my GBW return is just three. It makes sense to keep it consistent for GBW: if you keep adding up every time you see a bird of a particular species in your garden that day, you don’t know if you are seeing individual birds or the same bird multiple times, and all combinations in between. That is why ringing can give reliable quantitative data for birds but simple observation cannot.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get my hoped for good numbers of Greenfinch and Goldfinch, but I did get one of the former, a second-year female in full breeding condition, and two of the latter: a second year male in full breeding condition and a nearly fully moulted juvenile (also a male).

There weren’t too many Starlings trying to take advantage of the mealworms, either in the Potter traps or on the feeding stations. I did catch two juveniles and a second year adult male in my mist nets but that was it. I also caught a juvenile Dunnock and a juvenile Blackbird.

However, there was one unexpected bonus:

Juvenile Blackcap, Sylvia atricapilla

Since I started ringing in my back garden, back in 2013 when I got my C-permit, until now, I had only ever caught three Blackcaps in my garden, all adults, so to catch this lovely, recently fledged, juvenile was a nice result for me.

The list for the session was: Blue Tit 1[9](1); Dunnock [1]; Robin [5]; Blackbird [1]; Blackcap [1]; Starling [2](1); Goldfinch 1[1]; Greenfinch [1]. Totals: 2 adults ringed from 2 species, 21 juveniles ringed from 8 species and 2 birds retrapped from two species, making 25 birds processed from 8 species.

With the rain moving in at 11:00, I could see it approaching, I closed and took down the nets, and had everything packed away just as the rain started falling: impeccable timing. At 12:30 the rain stopped briefly. Suddenly there were half-a-dozen Greenfinch and Goldfinch, about 20 Starlings, five Jackdaws and three Woodpigeons. It soon started raining again and has continued to do so ever since, with a Meteorological Office yellow warning of heavy rain to come until tomorrow evening. Deep joy: there are some benefits to living close to the top of a hill.

Being election day, I was hoping for a large turnout in the bird electorate. I had a quorum of helpers: Rosie, Miranda and Laura, joining me for the session. After some discussion on how quiet the wood has been this year with Robin Griffiths, the Ravensroost warden and organiser of wildlife surveys for the site, I have decided to try sessions in different areas of the wood, to see whether there has been a significant change. To give some background, over the last couple of winters there have been some significant forestry operations within Ravensroost: the volunteers have carried out their usual coppicing activities in section X of the woodland. Alongside that, there has been considerable Ash dieback mitigation work in the wood plus the coppicing of the 25 year coppice cycle in the north of the wood. I know that, following significant forestry operations at both Red Lodge and Webb’s Wood, catches can die right off before making significant recoveries often, as is certainly the case at Webb’s Wood, with a change to the species profile.

The first surprise I had was turning up to find that the site has a newly resurfaced carpark, gates at the entrance to the car park so it can be completely closed off, and new gates at the entrance of the reserve itself. All looks very good, and so much easier to open the new gate than having to drag the old one across on its dropped hinges.

Today we set our nets in this area of the wood:

and we set the following nets:

The weather was strange: despite the sun it was very cold. That was almost entirely down to a cold breeze blowing through the site. The breeze did strengthen over the course of the morning and, by the time we were ready to pack up, was beginning to make the nets billow.

Unfortunately, the catch was slow and low. Over the course of the morning all we caught were 15 birds from six species. There were no retrapped birds and the list was: Blue Tit [1]; Great Tit [2]; Wren [3]; Robin 1[3]; Blackcap [2]; Chiffchaff 2[1]. Totals: 3 adults ringed from 2 species and 12 juveniles ringed from 6 species, making 15 birds processed from 6 species.

It was very quiet, with very little birdsong: what we caught was what we heard, with the exception of the Nuthatch that spent time calling above our heads at the ringing station, and the small flock of Long-tailed Tits that, again, were circling around our heads but never got near the nets.

There was a good number of butterflies around. In the majority were Ringlet, but they were accompanied by Speckled Wood and Meadow Brown and, somewhat more spectacularly, some Silver-washed Fritillary and a couple of White Admiral. However, this was probably the star of the show:

Immature male Southern Hawker dragonfly, Aeshna cyanea

It was flying around, near the long line of nets, nearly all morning. We packed up at 11:30 and were off site fairly soon after midday.

A brief Barn Owl update. Rosie, Ellie and I checked on the boxes at Upper Waterhay Farm on Friday. The two Jackdaw broods have successfully fledged but the Barn Owl brood, which we had planned to ring, has been predated. There were a couple of fresh pellets in the box but no sign of the youngsters that were there three weeks ago. We had a first visit to Swillbrook Farm and checked three boxes: we ringed two good sized young in one box, another had clearly been occupied by Jackdaw and the third, despite the ancient barn it is in having collapsed, with just the roof remaining intact, was still showing signs of the adults roosting there. Finally, we went to check on the box in Allotment Field at Blakehill Farm. Last time we looked we caught and ringed the male on the box and there were a couple of eggs there. This time there were four young: three were large enough for us to ring and the fourth looked like it might end up as food for its siblings, so we left it unringed.

An interesting month for the group:

Added to the list compared to last year were: Canada Goose, Kestrel, Linnet, Magpie, Redwing and Siskin. Missing from last year’s list were Collared Dove, Green Woodpecker, Jay, Kingfisher and Marsh Tit. The lack of Marsh Tit is almost certainly down to the simple fact that I did no woodland ringing this month.

Andy has had an absolute monopoly of the Starlings this month: all 53 were caught in what it, essentially, his back garden!  I might have been able to add a few but it has been too windy “up north” for me to open the nets in my garden.  Not only that but he caught the Siskin there as well. 

Jonny and I were both very lucky this month and got to ring a brood of Kestrels each.  It took my haul of pullus Kestrels ringed from one, as a trainee back in June 2010, to six.  It took Jonny’s from none to six in two months!  

A civilised way to ring Kestrel chicks: in the garden with tea and biscuits to follow, for me, Dad brought the chicks a vole soon after they were returned to the nest.

It was a good month for Barn Owl and Swallow chicks being ringed. The Barn Owls look as though they are in for a good year: nearly every box with young chicks in had a larder of mice and voles.  We ringed another five today!  Given how virtually everyone has remarked upon how low Swallow numbers appear to be, there were a lot ringed last month, and I am hopeful that we will get good numbers for July as well.

Migrant warbler numbers were interesting: Blackcap, Chiffchaff, Lesser Whitethroat, Sedge Warbler and Willow Warbler numbers were up, Reed Warbler numbers were down and Garden Warbler and Whitethroat numbers were on a par with last year. 

And now to the bird of the month: the Redwing that Jonny caught at Langford Lakes on the 12th of the month.  Either the latest leaver, or the earliest returner ever recorded in the county.  Not only that: the fattest ever recorded as well. There have been a number of 80+g birds recorded but, out of the 3,475 previous records, none have been heavier than 86g.  This porker weighed in at 97.8g. It clearly fits within acceptable parameters in DemOn, as the weight wasn’t queried, besides Jonny is scrupulous in his accuracy of recording. Perhaps that’s why it didn’t get very far on migration!

As part of my having taken on the C-permit holders of the Salisbury Plain Ringing Group, I spent sessions on Salisbury Plain with the new head honcho, Richard Clayton, and one of my new crew, Jon Pepper. Then, later in the month, I went out with another of the C’s, Jon Keepen, at the Cumberwell Park Golf Club.  It was absolutely fascinating watching them work.  The three that I have seen at work are all very competent in their handling of even the most feisty, close to fledging, raptor chicks. Not only that but I got to ring my first ever Little Owl:

In terms of our overall figures, this year is turning out to be our best yet. 

Nearly 1,000 more birds ringed in the first half of this year than any before.  That is not all down to the expanded activity with nest recording and ringing, but it is a sizeable chunk.  What is clear is that we are doing well in species variety.  The following table shows the number of species caught for the first six months of each years since 1st January 2013.

Given that we are a land-locked county and have just one site on the edge of the Cotswold Water Park, Lower Moor Farm, plus Langford Lakes in the Warminster area, and we don’t target waterfowl at either, the variety is rather pleasing.

Having been laid up all week, since my visit to Cumberwell Park Golf Club last Sunday, where I got to ring my first ever Little Owl, I was very pleased to be able to get out for CES6 this morning. Suffering from severe muscle problems in my back, and being dosed up to the eyeballs on painkillers and anti-inflammatory pills to enable me to cope, I was delighted that Rosie and the entire Childs family: Laura, Mark, Daniel and Adam, could join me for the session. Not only that, but they insisted on doing all of the setup and pack away work, and for me to take it easy and do nothing. I must milk this for as much as possible, as long as possible!

It was a reasonably good session but, it was only when I returned home and checked, I didn’t realise how good it was compared to 2023: last year’s session produced just eight birds from four species! To be fair to last year, the weather turned bad and we had to close the nets after four hours at 10:00. No such issues today: the weather was calm, once the early morning cloud cover dispersed it was a lovely blue sky and a warm sun: not too hot.

We had the first birds in the nets by 6:20 and then every round produced two or three birds per round. There were several highlights:

Juvenile Cetti’s Warbler, Cettia cetti, our first juvenile of this species this year.

This was followed by a male Reed Warbler: our first caught at Lower Moor Farm in June. We have caught them annually on passage both on the way in (May) and on the way out (August and September) but there are no significant reed beds on the site to support breeding:

Reed Warbler, Acrocephalus scirpaceus (photo courtesy of Mark Childs)

There was also something rather unusual: we found a female Blackcap with a tumour over the right eye:

Blackcap, Sylvia atricapilla. As well as the tumour over the eye there is another growth appearing at the base of the top of the beak. We also had a juvenile Blackcap which showed that life has been hard at times for the earlier broods:

As you can see, there are multiple fault bars on this birds tail. They represent interruptions in the availability of food.

Finally, we retrapped two Blackbirds, a male and a female. Laura was a little concerned at the state of the male’s cloacal protuberance. When she passed it to me to see what she meant, it did look rather red and sore, and then it deposited this on the ringing table:

I am not an expert but I have the strongest impression that I know exactly what that is and that he was excited rather than sore!

This was the list for the session: Blue Tit (1); Great Tit [1](1); Wren [3]; Dunnock (1); Robin [2](2); Blackbird (2); Garden Warbler [1]; Cetti’s Warbler [1](2); Reed Warbler 1; Blackcap 2[7](3); Chiffchaff [2](1); Bullfinch 1. Totals: 4 adults ringed from 3 species, 17 juveniles ringed from 7 species and 13 birds retrapped from 8 species, making 34 birds processed from 12 species.

We had everything packed up and were leaving site by 12:30.

There were quite a few photographers around this morning: hunting for Norfolk Hawker dragonflies. We had really good views of one: but I thought it was a Brown Hawker: however there were no blue spots along the abdomen and it is (just) too early for its flight season. I wish that I had taken a photograph for evidence. According to the creature’s name and the map in the “Field Guide to the Dragonflies and Damselflies of Great Britain and Ireland” by Steve Brooks, illustrated by the wonderful Richard Lewington (who kindly signed my copy) they are only found on the east coast of Norfolk but, apparently, they have spread westwards over the last 20 years, reaching as far west as Devon.

Barn Owl checking in the Braydon Forest was carried out for a very long time by a stalwart volunteer of the Wiltshire Wildlife Trust, Paul Darby, and his team. I joined his team in 2015 and, when Paul retired from monitoring them, I took over the job. Unfortunately, his entire team retired at the same time. It took a while to build it up again. The key differences were that Paul did not have a schedule 1 licence, so could only check and clean boxes in the winter months, and isn’t a bird ringer. Whereas not only do I have my schedule 1 licence but, thanks to work I had done with my first trainer, Matt Prior, and then with experienced ringers of raptors, Simon Lane and Rob Hayden, the BTO added raptor pullus and adult endorsements to my ringing licence. However, I didn’t really get started until I got my A-permit and trainer’s endorsement, and it is amazing how many people will offer to help when they have the chance of putting a ring on a Barn Owl. The first two years were quiet, as I was feeling my way into it, primarily looking at the Wiltshire Wildlife Trust boxes at my ringing sites. In 2017 we ringed eight chicks and in 2018 we ringed six chicks and one adult.

Thereafter, we branched out to the other sites in the north of the county, boosting the catches. From 2021 on, we ringed 27, 22 and 20 Barn Owls respectively. 2021 was a stellar year, last year was awful: we ringed 20, but lost three to probable intra-brood cannibalism. This was almost certainly down to it being a poor vole year. We didn’t find any boxes with a larder: a cache of voles for the lean times, as we had done previously and, I am pleased to say, as we are finding regularly this year.

2024 has started excellently: my trip to the lower Wylye valley, back in May, was encouraging as a portent of what might be to come. What I found back in the Braydon Forest was that we were at least two to three weeks behind the broods further south. My early visits this year indicated that we are going to have a good year. Up to yesterday, we had ringed 17 youngsters from four nests: three broods of five and one of two. As of now, we have ringed 23 from six nests, because this morning we ringed another brood of three at Somerford Farm and this afternoon I ringed a brood of three at Lower Pavenhill Farm. The first four broods ringed this year were all from boxes that failed last year.

What is pleasing about today’s catch is that Somerford Farm box failed last year and the box I checked this afternoon has been up for two previous breeding seasons, but has never been occupied. It was only last winter that I found any sign that any Barn Owl had been near the box. I know of another three boxes that have young that will be ready for ringing in a week or two. One of those boxes, in a barn at Somerford Farm, has been up for five years and has never seen any owl activity in all that time, until this year. When I checked it on the 9^th May there were three eggs laid. On checking it today we saw both parents leave the box as we approached and inside we found these:

I have to be honest, I had rather expected them to have been somewhat more developed than this. There are five hatchlings and two warm eggs, plus a few stashed voles. On the floor, underneath the box, was a pellet. I chose not to take a photo (although I am considering going back and doing so): it is the first pellet I have ever seen with a rodent’s tail sticking out of one end. It looked bizarre and slightly disturbing.

Alongside these broods ringed and the three ear-marked for later, I still have another twenty or so boxes to check. Talking of which, whilst checking this last box we were approached by a local farmer who is very interested in putting up a couple of boxes, and who is aware of another local farmer who is also keen to promote owls on their land. At our first stop we were approached by a man who runs a local stables / riding school who expressed his disappointment at not having managed to attract any Barn Owls to his boxes: so disappointed that he took them down! Anyway, I have offered to go and have a look at his site and make some suggestions about possible positioning for the boxes that might give them some success.

Things are looking rather good for wildlife in and around the Braydon Forest. Apart from the significant quantities of land owned and managed by the Wiltshire Wildlife Trust and Forestry England, so many of the farmers are on board with encouraging nature. With Jonny Cooper getting farmers focused on providing suitable habitat for both Curlew and Lapwing in this area, things are looking encouraging.

Today I met up with Jon Keepen, another of the C-permit holders from the Salisbury Plain Ringing Group, that I have taken on since the retirement of Nigel Lewis. Jon’s role at the golf club, in addition to the usual groundskeeper duties, is as Conservation Manager of the club. In that regard, his duties include the monitoring, cleaning and maintenance of the nest boxes found around the various courses. It was as a part of those duties that he became involved with the ringing of the birds on the estate.

I met Jon and his friend, Keith Wright, also heavily involved with owls and other raptors, rather given away by his Hawk Conservancy Trust polo shirt! Jon’s plan was to visit two Barn Owl boxes and one each of Little Owl and Kestrel boxes, which should have birds ready to ring. He also planned to check on the progress of one Kestrel box where the previous visit had two very young chicks and two eggs, to check on progress, rather than planning to ring them.

The first box we checked was a Kestrel box: it had four healthy chicks, which we ringed, weighed and measured the wing projection on the seventh primary feather. This last is some thing that I personally haven’t done, but I know that the SPRG do it as a matter of course. I restrict myself to describing the entire wing: feathers in pin; feathers short (out of pin, up to one-third emerged), feathers medium (more than one-third emerged, up to two-thirds emerged) and feathers long (more than two-thirds emerged up to fully emerged). Perhaps this is a method of quantifying those statuses. I plan to find out: never to late to learn!

This is Jon processing one of the Kestrel chicks:

Our second stop was a bird with a Barn Owl box on one side of the tree and a Little Owl box on the opposite side. The Little Owl box is something to behold: it is around about 30 years old and is made from old wooden map cases which Nigel Lewis liberated (with permission) from the army way back when. There had been four eggs in the Little Owl box when last checked. Unfortunately, there were only two chicks this time. I was delighted to get to ring my first ever Little Owl:

Little Owl pullus, Athene noctua, looking somewhat suspiciously at my phone!

Next door, in the Barn Owl box, we were lucky to catch the female on the nest, giving Jon a rare opportunity to catch and ring an adult. His permit doesn’t cover adult raptors but mine does and, as I am now his trainer, he could ring it under my supervision. I got the opportunity to actually do a bit of training: showing him the “cuddle” method for ringing and measuring the wings on a large bird with sharp, strong claws and a beak designed for inflicting pain. As well as Mum, we ringed, weighed and measured four chicks. All are developing well but are a fair way off fledging: four, possibly five, weeks before they do. We also recovered one unhatched egg. Muggins knocked it against a tree to open it to check whether there was any sign of development. It just exploded and my hands were covered by an evil smelling residue. Fortunately, Jon had some very handy wet wipes in his bag!

Our next box was the bonus box: a Kestrel box which Jon thought the occupants would be too young to ring yet. It was quite obvious that there was activity in the box, as the photo of the bush underneath the box can attest:

Clearly the parents have shown them the right toilet etiquette: better out than in.

The young were, in fact, surprisingly well developed. In the box were four young, with feathers medium, and two cold eggs. This time, rather more carefully than me, Jon opened both eggs. One was, as the Little Owl egg, rancid, runny and very smelly. Sadly, the other contained a dead embryo. Those of a sensitive disposition might like to avoid this next photograph:

Kestrel embryo, Falco tinnunculus

There is no indication of why it failed to continue to develop and then hatch. We know that birds of prey stagger hatching, but this embryo had definitely stopped developing weeks ago and was certainly not viable.

Our final box was a Barn Owl box. We were expecting two youngsters but in fact found three. They were very advanced and cannot be more than a couple of weeks, possibly less, from fledging:

Keith holding a Barn Owl, Tyto alba, definitely close to fledging. If you look at the head (the owl’s not Keith’s), it is just growing the final juvenile plumage.

So, we spent some three hours visiting five nest boxes and processing eight Kestrel chicks, two Little Owl chicks, one Barn Owl adult and seven Barn Owl chicks. Very pleasant.

This golf club is part of a larger estate, and has a lot of varied habitats. The owls and Kestrels seem to be doing particularly well: the first Barn Owl box had a well-stocked larder. The birds in the second were so big that they must be scoffing everything that parents can catch. There are huge expanses of rough, with a wide variety of flowers and grasses. Lots of habitat for prey species, lots of hunting habitat for the predatory species.

The view immediately adjacent to the second Kestrel box.

Jon has a total of 3 x Kestrel boxes, 3 x Barn Owls and 1 x Little Owl box on the site. Prior to today their biggest haul had been 17 birds. Today we processed 18. What is good about that is that every box produced what it was supposed to and, from a personal perspective, that takes my UK species tally to 111.