One of us had an absolutely astonishing month, and it certainly wasn’t me! Jonny found a Swallow roost which yielded an excellent 182 birds ringed in four sessions. Not content with that excellent Swallow catch, he managed to include four Sand Martins and three House Martins during those sessions. If that wasn’t good enough, he had a couple of, frankly astonishing, catches at two of his farmland sites, with over 400 birds caught in just two sessions. One of those sessions was boosted by a phenomenal catch of 161 Goldfinches..
Actually, two of the team had a great month: my current longest serving trainee Ellie has been awarded her A-permit! It is thoroughly well-deserved, having put up with me as her trainer since January 2015.
Overall we caught fewer birds, but in fewer sessions, so the averages were all higher.
Missing from the list this year were Bullfinch, Garden Warbler, Nightjar, Tree Sparrow or Woodpigeon. Added to the list compared with last September were Linnet, Moorhen, Pied Wagtail, Sand Martin, Stock Dove, Stonechat and Whinchat.
The Moorhen is the only one ever ringed at Langford Lakes, according to the data in the online database.
The Sand Martins are the first caught since the group came into its current form at the beginning of 2013.
After a three year absence, I was pleased to catch four Whinchat back at Blakehill Farm. Three of them essentially rescued my ringing demonstration for the Swindon Wildlife Group on the 7th of the month. It turned a small catch, although with a reasonable variety of some interesting birds, into a session that the attendees definitely appreciated.
The Stonechat catch was interesting. Two were caught at Langford Lakes: the only other catch of Stonechat at Langford Lakes was one in October last year. Langford Lakes is certainly delivering now it is being surveyed more frequently.
The four Stonechat caught at Blakehill raise an interesting question. In February of this year we caught and ringed a male and a female at Blakehill Farm. The first that we have caught Robin Griffiths, who spends his time as volunteer warden at Ravensroost, and surveying all of the sites around the Cricklade / Braydon Forest area, noticed that there were two breeding pairs of Stonechat at Blakehill, despite there being virtually no standard Stonechat habitat at the site. He also noted that both pairs bred successfully. Although we cannot be sure if we have, it would be great if we have managed to ring some of this year’s local offspring (three were juveniles).
There were some rather large falls in the catch of some of the commoner species. Blackcap numbers were well down at 160 against 382 and Whitethroat were down at 7 against 25. Of resident species, Blackbird were at 8 against 18, Blue Tit were down to 85 from 165, Robin 42 from 65. As well as the Goldfinch catch, the Greenfinches also showed a good increase at 39 from 6.
So, a pretty good month all round. It is shaping up to be a really good year again:
For the third quarter in a row we have exceeded our previous best numbers.
Hopefully we will get some decent weather in October and keep the run going.
As with the previous post on Nuthatch, I decided to have a look at the catches of Treecreeper within the Braydon Forest woodlands over the last 11 years to see if there was any obvious trend in numbers ringed and processed.
As with the Nuthatch catches, I have not included the 2024 data in the graphs, to rule out seasonal discrepancies.
Like the Nuthatch, there are multiple peaks and troughs. Unlike them, the trend is downward, dropping from 24 down to 14 individuals, and from 20 to 13 birds ringed by year. The sessional analysis also shows a decline, but it is less pronounced than the bald numbers would indicate:
The number of birds ringed has decreased from 40% of sessions to 34%, whereas the number of individuals processed by session has decreased somewhat more, from 48% of sessions to 38%.
When we look at the juvenile recruitment into the population it is as volatile as that of the species as a whole. The data used for the following table and graphs is based on the BTO age codes of 3J (full juvenile plumage); 3 (completed post-fledging moult) and 5 (birds fledged in the previous breeding season).
Although the figures do follow similar paths, the reduction per session is considerably lower than it is in the straight number count. The reduction per session has gone from 14% of sessions to 12.5% of sessions, whereas the actual number of juveniles ringed per year has reduced from 14 to 8 on average.
I decided to have a look at whether these changes varied across the woodland sites. Looking at the entirety of the catch (juveniles and adults) gave the following results by site by year:
I have graphed these individually, otherwise it is too difficult to look at the site trends.
Ravensroost Wood:
Red Lodge:
Somerford Common:
The Firs: note that this only includes data up to 2022, as the wood was closed between October 2022 and February 2024
Webb’s Wood:
It is clear that number of individuals is full of peaks and troughs in every site. When the data is not particularly numerous, that is always going to be an issue. A good year or a bad year can have an exaggerated impact on the overall trend. Despite that, the catch in Ravensroost Wood shows the steepest, most obvious decline, particularly exacerbated by the reduction in the last three years. Why that should be, I have little idea. There were significant forestry operations over the winter of 2022 / 23, but that doesn’t correlate with the steepest decline in their numbers. 2021 was obviously the worst, but also for Red Lodge and Webb’s Wood.
Red Lodge shows the impact that four good years can have on the overall trend line if it sits in the middle of a small data set. For fun, I moved the four years to the front and to the back and redrew the graphs:
Similar effects would be had if I moved the three bad years on Somerford Common. That is the issue with data that is this volatile and with such small sample sizes. If 2024 turns out to be a good year for Treecreepers it could rebalance some of the trendlines.
What is undeniable is that there is a definite shallow decline trend in the catch of Treecreeper within the woodlands of the Braydon Forest.
It has been a difficult month in my neck of the woods: too much rain and far too windy, far too often. With Jonny Cooper, with sites just 20 miles or so further south than mine, getting fantastic results on his farmland sites: 234 birds from 15 species on Tuesday (47 Meadow Pipits and an astonishing 148 Goldfinches) and 182 birds from 11 species on Wednesday (129 Meadow Pipits), I was desperate to find out what we could get at Blakehill Farm for the end of September. Autumn passage is always the most interesting time at Blakehill, but the topography is such that we cannot work there if it is other than close to flat calm.
So far this month we have had fairly poor results on the Chelworth side of Blakehill, with a total of 58 birds from 14 species. To be fair, that was mainly down to the ringing demonstration on the 7th producing only 14 birds (even if three of them were our first Whinchats since 2021). 44 birds on my solo session on the 19th was definitely an improvement. There have been some definite highlights: three Whinchat and two Stonechat (our first September catches since 2020), a Sedge Warbler (only our fifth at this site), another Redstart (our fourth, making it our best year for the species), 19 Chiffchaff and 13 Meadow Pipit. I was hoping for a better catch this morning.
Today’s forecast was for it to be dry, and to have fairly low wind speeds, a base of 4 to 5mph, with gusts getting up to 15mph by 11:30. I was joined for the morning by David, Sarah and the entire Childs family, so I thought we could set couple of additional nets. This is what we set up:
Although the weather started out as forecast, unfortunately the wind got up much earlier, at about 10:00, and interfered with some of the nets, particularly rides 1, 2 and 3 and made taking down ride 6 difficult as David, Sarah and I spent a pleasant 10 minutes extracting it from Blackthorn. In fact, we closed ride 1 early as birds were flying out and around it constantly but, because of the billowing of the net, just were not being caught. It also affected the Mipit triangle: it started well, but fell away as the wind increased: we could have 20 or so birds within the triangle but, if we were lucky, catch one or two.
The session started really well, with the first two rounds producing 30 birds, but unfortunately fell away quite quickly. The dogleg ride 4 finally, after two empty sessions, produced a few birds, as did rides 5,6 and 7. Rides 6 and 7 caught a good haul of Reed Bunting in round one, including one retrap that is not on our rings. I look forward to finding out where it was ringed.
The list for the day was: Blue Tit [1]; Great Tit [2]; Wren (2); Dunnock [1]; Meadow Pipit 6[10]; Robin [1]; Stonechat 1[1]; Whinchat [1]; Chiffchaff [8]; Reed Bunting [10](1). Totals: 7 adults ringed from 2 species, 35 juveniles ringed from 9 species and 3 retraps caught from 2 species, making 45 birds processed from 10 species.
I am pretty sure that, had the wind not got up, we would have caught more Meadow Pipits than we did: possibly doubling the number, but it was good to get out and add to our totals for Meadow Pipit and, particularly, Stonechat and Whinchat. This year, for the first time ever recorded, Stonechat have nested and successfully bred at Blakehill Farm. There were two nests and two young fledged – and we have ringed four Stonechat so far this autumn: three juveniles and one adult. I would love to know if we have been lucky enough to catch some of the birds that fledged at the site.
With the wind getting stronger, and the bird numbers falling right away, we decided to start taking down at 11:00, with ride 1. We did have a couple of birds to process after that. So we took down rides 4 to 7, before removing the Mipit triangle and ride 2, with three final birds to process before leaving: two more Meadow Pipits and one more Reed Bunting. That made it our third best September catch of Reed Bunting at 15 for the month, behind 19 in 2016 and 17 in 2019.
So, it was our best catch of the month at Blakehill Farm: by one bird! We had everything packed away and left site soon after midday. Hopefully we will get the chance to get back to the site within the first couple of weeks of October and add to our Meadow Pipit total. Now, if I can also find the opportunity to get a session or two on the other side of the site within those two weeks as well I would be well satisfied.
One final point: the end of our session was disrupted by someone flying their model aeroplane out over the plateau. There is a model plane club that has permission to use a number of fields over which to fly their toys, but the undertaking the club made in their agreement with the landowners is that they will not fly them over the plateau, so that they don’t disturb the cattle, sheep or wildlife. I drove round to where he was parked up and, politely, asked him not to fly the plane over the plateau. He was as arrogant about it as one would expect from someone who knows that they are in the wrong, but he did pack up, thankfully.
After the deluge preventing any ringing since last Wednesday, and with the rest of this week looking wet and windy, today was the only day that looked possible for any ringing in the near future. It was supposedly going to be windy, with the wind coming from the north-west, so it was going to have to be a woodland site. I haven’t been in Ravensroost Wood since the first week of July, so I decided that would be the place to go. As regular readers know, with the exception of the Firs, our catches in woodlands this summer have been disappointingly small. Ravensroost Wood, for example, has averaged just 17 birds per session. However, it was due for a visit.
I was joined by Rosie and Miranda to help set up at 7:00. As Miranda was walking down to where we were to start setting the nets she saw a small group of six thrush sized birds on the main path: she was certain that they were Redwing. Since our records for Redwing began, in December 2000, out of 3,476 of the species processed, none have been processed in September. However, I put on our lure for Redwing and, at about 9:30, a thrush-like bird hit the net. I rushed off to take it out but, unfortunately, a couple were walking their dogs down the path, and it is possible that they spooked the bird, which managed to extricate itself and fly off. The couple were not doing anything wrong: the dogs were on short leads and under control, it was just unfortunate timing. However, they know their birds and they told us that it was a Redwing! The earliest date that we have ever caught a Redwing was the 6th October 2010.
The reason for the unfortunate interaction was my decision to set the nets down the main ride. This was because the side tracks are horrendously overgrown, due to weather, illness, etc, I haven’t had the time to get them cleared, so we decided to just set up along the main track. Our thoughts were that, with the weather having been so foul, and Ravensroost known to get very mucky underfoot, there would not be many people in the wood today. With just three pairs and one individual passing through, all with their dogs on leads, it was the right decision.
Rosie had to leave early, and I mean early: at 7:45, just after the nets were up and open. She had time to extract a Wren, the first bird of the morning, but not time to process it. As Rosie left, Laura arrived, after having done the school run! She extracted a Nuthatch (yes, another one) as she wandered up to the ringing station from the car park.
The first round proper flattered to deceive: nine birds from seven species. However, after that we did not catch another bird for nearly two hours! That was a single bird, 30 minutes after that we caught four more, all Long-tailed Tits and, as we started to shut the nets, we caught another two.
The list for the session was: Nuthatch {1}; Blue Tit 1[1]; Great Tit [1]; Coal Tit (1); Marsh Tit [1]; Long-tailed Tit {6}(1); Wren [1]; Robin (1); Chiffchaff [2]; Goldcrest [2]. Totals 7 unaged bird ringed from 2 species, 1 adult ringed, 8 juveniles ringed from 6 species and 3 birds retrapped from 3 species, making 19 birds processed from 10 species. Nice variety, if not great numbers. If only that Redwing had stayed in the net, and the Treecreeper that was running up the Oak tree just behind the net had got itself caught, it would have been a very decent session.
Annoyingly: the wind that was forecast by all of the forecasters did not materialise until we started packing up at 11:30, so we could have gone somewhere that was guaranteed to be more productive. Fortunately, tomorrow’s forecast has changed for the better, so I will be heading off to Blakehill Farm to try and catch a few more Meadow Pipits and any autumn migrants that might be passing through.
With this weekend and next week looking like a complete washout, and not wanting to spend all of my spare time mending nets, I decided to have a look at the catch ratios of some of our resident species. Firstly I looked at one of my favourite birds: Nuthatch. We hear them all of the time when in the woodlands: if they aren’t calling or singing you can hear them tapping away in search of food in the treetops. One key thing about this species: we never lure for it, so catches are based purely on availability at the site.
Nuthatch, Sitta europaea
The first thing I did was count up how many sessions I have actually run within the forest woodlands up to the end of 2023. I decided to look at two elements: numbers ringed and the number of individuals caught. However, as well as doing the total numbers by year, I also decided to look at how that breaks down by session. Obviously, for most species that is going to be fractional, but it is more representative of the status of each species, the higher the catching rate, logically, the more common the species in this habitat. Although I have included some figures for 2024 for discussion purposes, I have only graphed for the full years 1st January 2013 to 31st December 2023 to eliminate any seasonal variation not covered so far this year.
Because of the difficulties of ageing Nuthatch in the latter part of the year, I have not carried out any age analysis.
As you can see from this graph, there was a peak catch in numbers ringed in 2017 and, probably as a result, individuals processed in 2018. It does show a general increasing trend across the years. When you look at the trend based on the numbers caught and processed by session, the increase is somewhat more pronounced. Not only that, but by assessing the catch as a factor of the number of sessions carried out, the picture is really rather different. Particularly if you look at 2022 vs 2023: in actual numbers there is a decrease in both numbers ringed and individuals processed but, as a proportion of the the sessions run, 2023 was an improvement on 2022.
Equally, the number of individuals processed in 2018 was, remarkably, over one Nuthatch processed per session on average. Because of the peaks in 2017 and 2018 I redrew the graphs excluding those peaks: it made no difference to the overall trend lines.
So far in 2024 we have run 37 sessions in the Braydon Forest woodlands and have ringed 20 and processed 24 individual birds, i.e. a proportional rate of Nuthatch being ringed in 54.1% of sessions and individuals processed in 64.9% of sessions: very close to the situation in 2023, so far. However, August was astonishing with 13 ringed and two retraps, a total of 15 individuals.
The other thing that I looked at was whether there is any particular difference in the sexual balance.
Female:
Male:
As you can see, the numbers are up and down, with a slight increase in the number of males but relatively static for females. When you split that out by session:
So, by session, both are showing an increasing trend across the years, but the peaks and troughs are a little more pronounced.
The final thing I looked at was the distribution over the course of the year by month. Clearly, like most of our woodland birds, they take advantage of the winter supplementary feeding, which I provide between October and February, depending upon the weather conditions. Taking that into consideration, the results are still quite interesting:
As with most of our woodland catches, they are low between the end of March and the end of July: i.e. the breeding season before the youngsters have fledged. I was surprised to find that we have never ringed a Nuthatch in May and that we have only ever caught a single individual in 11 years. For the record, it was the same in May 2024: no Nuthatch, but lots of song and calling! I have looked across the entire West Wilts Ringing Group’s records over the period I am covering in this report. Outside of the Braydon woodlands, there have only been five adult Nuthatch ringed in May across all of our sites: one at Job’s Mill, Warminster in 2017; two at the WWT reserve at Biss Wood, one in each of 2022 and 2023 and two at Lower Moor Farm in 2023. Equally, only four have been retrapped in May: the Job’s Mill bird was recaptured the following year, two were caught during my Help4Heroes sessions at Tedworth House and one in the Firs. Definitely the quietest month for the species.
I think the surprising thing for me is that proportion of birds ringed in April is at 80% of the small number caught, before they disappear completely in May. Clearly June, July, August and September should be boosted by the newly fledged birds but April? The picture is rather unclear, as juveniles do not show up as a huge percentage of the catch in the period where they are identifiable (i.e. June to September inclusive), and in August and September there are a significant number that it is unreliable to try and age as they have completed their post-fledging / post-breeding moults and now adults and young have identical plumage. The table below shows the difficulty of getting an accurate picture of the situation:
This is the first of a series that I plan to carry out whilst the weather is as awful as it is forecast to be for the next week. (Be warned.)
This was my fifth visit to the Firs since it was reopened to our team for bird ringing, after the forestry operations. The third visit, at the end of July, gave an encouraging catch of 55 birds, last visit, in the middle of August, gave an astonishing catch for this site of 99 birds. Having worked Webb’s Wood on Saturday, Red Lodge a couple of time recently, all with disappointingly small catches, and unable to get into Ravensroost Wood (Wednesdays are reserved for their volunteer group outside of the breeding season) and the weather forecast for it to be dry but breezy, I decided to have another go at the Firs. The siting of the nets down the central glade make it relatively windproof when the wind is coming from the east or west. Today’s was a westerly. I was joined by Miranda and Laura for the morning at 7:00 and we set the usual central glade nets: one ride of 3 x 18m 5-Shelf nets on the western edge of the glade, followed on by 3 x 18m + 1 x 12m 5-Shelf nets on the eastern side of the glade, essentially making a single net line of 120m. The nets were open by 8:00.
It started with a single Robin that flew in before we had opened the nets. You can normally guarantee that any bird caught before the nets are open will be one of Robin, Blackbird or (horror of horrors) Wren. Thereafter, we had birds arriving regularly throughout the morning, until we closed up at just after 11:30. It was another encouraging catch. The Ash die-back clearance and removal of mature oaks (part payment to the contractors for the work they did (but didn’t finish)) certainly seems to have improved the catches at the Firs. The average catch at the site this year has gone to 56.6 birds per session. When you compare this with previous years, all of which would have had at least three sessions fuelled by the provision of supplementary feeding, whereas this has had none in 2024, it is clear that the work in the wood has helped improve the catch, presumably because of the changes to the habitat. Nor should one overlook the excellent work that Rosie and her team have carried out opening up the central glade: the proliferation of blackberries has to be a contributing factor.
Only 2018 and 2019 come close, and they had big overwinter catches.
On the subject of those brambles producing those blackberries: they have to be the worst in the world, with the heaviest density of prickles I have ever come across. You really have to keep your nets well away from them, otherwise it can be disastrous. I have had one net completely destroyed by them: just impossible to extract after the wind changed direction and it got so badly ensnared I could only rip it out: just a mere £110 down the drain.
The list for this morning was pretty much what one expects in a woodland catch: Treecreeper 2[1]; Blue Tit 8[7](6); Great Tit 1[3](5); Marsh Tit [1](1); Long-tailed Tit {2}(3); Coal Tit 1; Wren 1(2); Robin [4](1); Blackcap [1]; Chiffchaff [9]; Goldcrest [2]. Totals 2 birds ringed unaged, 13 adults ringed from 5 species, 28 juveniles ringed from 8 species and 18 birds retrapped from 6 species, making 61 birds processed from 11 species. Of the retrapped birds, 7 were juveniles and the Long-tailed Tits could not be aged.
I did have the opportunity to show Laura and Miranda how to definitively age Treecreeper, as we had two adults and a juvenile:
Treecreeper, Certhia familiaris. The difference is in the primary coverts. An adult has either small or missing pin-prick spots at the tips of the primary coverts, whereas juveniles have larger, tear-drop shaped, spots.
If there was any disappointment in the catch, it was the failure to get any of the Nuthatch that spent the morning calling and knocking all around us. Also, there are at least two Green Woodpecker territories in the Firs but I have never been able to entice them into the nets.
With the wind getting very much stronger, and the nets starting to billow, we shut them at 11:40. took down and were off-site by 12:30 after another very satisfying session.
As regular readers will know, on the seventh of this month we held a ringing demonstration for the Swindon Wildlife Group. If it hadn’t been for the three lovely Whinchat that turned up late in the session, it would have been a very disappointing morning for the paying public. Unfortunately, the Stonechats that bred on site this year, whilst making an appearance sitting on top of the net poles, failed to hit any of the nets and Meadow Pipits were conspicuous by their absence, apart from one that flew across the plateau before any of the public arrived.
Last week’s midweek session had to be cancelled due to my back problems, so I was looking for an opportunity to get out early this week and today was perfect. What is more, the weather forecasts all said that it would be dry, with a low base wind until about 11:00, whereupon it would get somewhat windy, with the wind coming from the north. Having invited my team to join me, if they could make it, I worked solo this morning. Something that I haven’t done for an age, except for the occasional garden session. Being mindful of my physical state, I only set the following nets initially:
I worked with these nets until 11:00 when the breeze became too strong, and I had to close them. As I wasn’t ready to pack up then, I set a row of three 18m 5-Shelf nets along the perimeter track hedgerow. With the wind coming from the north, they were well sheltered and, having closed the other nets, easy for me to manage:
Although immediately adjacent to the ringing station, I had wanted to go for the potential Meadow Pipit catch and the potential for Whinchat and Stone chat.
The first round produced two birds: a Wren and our fourth Redstart of the autumn: three at Blakehill Farm and one at Lower Moor Farm! This is my team’s best catch of Redstart ever. We have only ever caught 11 since I started working these sites in August 2012: nine of them at Blakehill Farm, two at Lower Moor Farm. Walking back with these two bagged up I found my first two Meadow Pipits of the autumn in the Mipit triangle.
Juvenile Meadow Pipit, Anthus pratensis. Note the pale edges to the median coverts with dark points infiltrating the pale edge. These are classic age identifiers for this species. I am pleased to say that I caught a couple of them in nearly every round, ending with a total of 13.
There was a decidedly small fall of Chiffchaffs, with six in round two and five in round three, ending up with the same total of Chiffchaff as I did with Meadow Pipit. The fourth round threw up one of the species missing from two weeks ago plus another that I really wasn’t expecting:
Juvenile male Stonechat, Saxicola rubicola. Only the two innermost greater coverts are white. In the adult this would be three or four at this time of year.
Followed by:
Juvenile Sedge Warbler, Acrocephalus schoenobaenus. This is only the fifth that we have caught at Blakehill: the first was in August 2019. We have then caught one on autumn passage in each year since, except for 2023. It has never been more than one in any year though, and none on spring passage.
The catch for the session was: Blue Tit [4]; Great Tit [1]; Long-tailed Tit {1}*; Wren 1[1](1); Dunnock [1]; Meadow Pipit 1[12]; Stonechat [2]; Redstart 1; Sedge Warbler [1]; Blackcap [1]; Chiffchaff [13]; Reed Bunting [3]. Totals: 1 bird unaged*, 3 adults ringed from 3 species, 39 juveniles ringed from 10 species and 1 juvenile retrapped, making 44 birds processed from 12 species.
* unaged because both adult and juvenile Long-tailed Tits, along with Nuthatch and House Sparrow, moult into identical plumage in the autumn. This bird had completed its moult so impossible to say whether adult or juvenile. The eye-ring colour varies between red and orange but is not a reliable indicator of age.
I started taking down the nets at 11:00, finishing with the final three at about 12:30. It was a lovely session. Mind you, this time the cattle were extremely nosey and I had to chase them away from the nets on several occasions. No damage, thankfully, but I wonder what they were thinking when this idiot came running towards them waving his arms and shouting at them to go away (not quite as politely as that might read). It is a lot easier to manage when there are more of you to keep them away. I will be back there the very next time the weather allows.
The forecast for this morning was for it to start cold and warm up, becoming bright and breezy as the morning wore on. They got it right for once, so my decision to go for one of the woodlands was the right one. Webb’s was next on the schedule, so that’s where we headed. This week has been difficult: my body has decided that muscle spasms in my back are to become the default status. After a visit to the doctor yesterday my choice is pain or doped up to the eyeballs on anti-inflammatories (naproxen), co-codomol, Diazepam and, to top it all off, oral morphine. For this morning (and so I could drive) I stuck to the naproxen and co-codomol. To be honest, I should have had the Diazepam as well, because I spent the morning fending off spasms and in pain.
I was joined for the morning by Adam and his dad, Mark. Laura has, unfortunately, also been laid low by painful problems. She did join us later in the morning: just to sit and chat and provide tea and cake! I met Mark and Adam at 7:00, only to realise that I had left some important stuff at home: my rucksack with my coffee and biscuits (okay, my boots and welly socks as well), so I had to shoot off home to pick them up. Fortunately, I only live 10 minutes away, so I managed to do the trip there and back in just 15 minutes (much to Mark’s incredulity). As the rest of the team was otherwise engaged today, we restricted ourselves to just four net rides on even terrain:
We had a very quiet session, with just a few birds caught. Fortunately we all enjoy a good natter, and we had plenty of opportunity. Whilst we were setting up ride 3, I found this on the ground:
Mole, Talpa europaea, found dead. Such a shame: you see them so rarely. I have seen a couple alive outside of their tunnel system, but also a couple dead. Hard to tell what the cause was: there was no obvious signs of injury.
The catch was small, but pleasant: Blue Tit 1; Marsh Tit 1; Wren 1; Blackbird 1; Blackcap 1; Chiffchaff 4; Goldcrest 2. Total: 11 juveniles ringed from 7 species.
We packed up at 11:30, after two empty rounds, and headed for home. To be fair, that size catch was probably all that I could manage today. Hopefully things will settle down soon. Hopefully this weather will settle down soon! I need some dry, wind free days so I can go Mipit hunting at Blakehill!
Today we carried out a scheduled ringing demonstration for the Swindon Wildlife Group at the Wiltshire Wildlife Trust reserve at Blakehill Farm. We decided upon setting up on the Chelworth side of the reserve, setting nets on the plateau and along the perimeter track hedgerow. As usual, the event was sold out. Nobby, the neighbouring landowner, once again allowed us to use his field for attendee parking. He is a good man!
I was joined for the morning by David and Sarah. Laura and Adam came along for the first couple of hours, but had to leave about 10:00. We set the following nets:
While we were setting up net 7 we caught our first bird of the morning: a Whitethroat flew into it whilst I was still playing the net out from the bag. I got David to hold the net taut whilst I extracted the bird: it can be a difficult thing to do, with lots of net wrapped around it, so I took the responsibility and, I am pleased to say, no problems. I didn’t set up and open ride 2 until 11:00, for reasons explained below.
Unfortunately, it was a really quiet morning. The site can be like that. It seems that our usual passage migrants are late arriving this year. Catches in the first week of September can vary between 21 on 1st September 2021 and 79 on 6th September 2017. The difference seems to be based on the date of arrival of the Meadow Pipits to the site. Robin Griffiths, the event organiser, saw a single Meadow Pipit flying across the plateau, but we did not catch any. Hopefully they will arrive soon: the crane-flies are emerging and that seems to coincide with Meadow Pipit numbers increasing.
The attendees arrived for 9:00 and I had a couple of birds to show them. As usual, I started with an overview of the ringing scheme and how the data can be used to identify individual birds, illustrated with our long-distance Blue Tit (second longest recorded movement of a Blue Tit within the UK) and our long-lived Goldcrest (the oldest known individual of the species) before processing the two birds. It was a nice pair to start with: a juvenile male Reed Bunting and a juvenile Whitethroat. I enjoy showing people little things, like sexing a juvenile male Reed Bunting on the somewhat hidden white collar developing at the back of the neck and, as in the case of the Whitethroat, the dandruff effect as the keratin sheath, or pin, of the feathers disintegrates.
Again, as usual, once I had processed the birds, I taught two of the children how to safely hold a bird in the ringer’s grip and then release it, whilst doting parents took their photos (we are talking seconds of time, not minutes). “Get children involved early” is my motto! In the end all of the children got to hold and release two birds, and a number of adults also got some training.
The patience of the audience was much appreciated. After we processed those two birds at 9:00, we didn’t have anything else to show them until 9:45, whereupon we caught two Chiffchaff, and then another one at 10:00. That was it, then, until 11:15. To fill the time we spent a while showing the people around the nets and how we set them. I decided to set up some additional nets along the perimeter track, i.e. ride 2. Of course, I should have done it earlier, as it immediately caught a Blackcap. Whilst I was checking ride 2, David and Sarah were checking the other nets and they came back with the prize catches of the session:
Juvenile Whinchat, Saxicola rubetra (Photo courtesy of Kathleen Gillen and reproduced with her permission).
After a fabulous catch of them in September 2021 both 2022 and 2023 were blank years, not Septembers, blank years, so to catch three in one session was lovely. Two of them were caught in ride 5: a 9m net that goes through a narrow cut between bramble on the west and blackthorn on the east. It has been a bit quiet of late, but this sort of catch is why I set this net – despite the dangers of the net being savaged on either side if the wind gets up. I gave one to each of David and Sarah to process (normally I do all of the processing at ringing demonstrations, and none if I have trainees with me on our normal sessions). That was David’s second and Sarah’s first.
Our last round was at 11:45 and we shut the nets as we checked them. We caught another three Chiffchaff. One of the Chiffchaff was having an identity crisis: emulating a Wren. It had crawled mostly through to the other side of the net from where it entered, span itself in the net over a dozen times and then got its head stuck through another part of the net. Definitely too much of a problem for Sarah, who is very early in her ringing career and who discovered it, so she called me over to extract it. That is my cardinal rule for trainees: if you are having a problem call me over. It is why we have a great record on keeping our catches alive, well and undamaged.
Again, we shared the processing. That was the end of the demonstration and the attendees left soon after midday and we started to take down. With David’s dad, Trevor, joining us, we split the take down and expected to get it done in half the time. Only when Sarah and I got to ride 5, we found that a Blue Tit had managed to get itself tangled into the net. It does happen occasionally that they get caught in a closed net, but that is usually in the morning when it is still a bit dark, and they probably haven’t fully woken up yet! For the same reason that I took the first Whitethroat out, I extracted it. Sarah lost the toss and processed it. By the time we had finished taking down and packing away it was close to 13:00 hours.
The list for today was: Blue Tit 1; Whinchat 3; Blackcap 1; Whitethroat 2; Chiffchaff 6; Reed Bunting 1. All birds caught were juveniles and none were retraps, so the total was 14 birds processed from 6 species.
Part of what helped keep everyone occupied and interested was the other birdlife flying around whilst we were there. At one point we had some large groups of Swallow and House Martin flying around. Unfortunately they stayed high mainly. I put a Swallow / House Martin lure on in the Mipit triangle, and they certainly grouped over and above the nets but they just never came down enough to get caught. The most surprising bird we saw was a Swift. After a group discussion, we all agreed that they left the local villages at the end of July, and to see one solitary Swift fly over the plateau was most unusual. Robin did catch sight of a Meadow Pipit flying close to the Mipit triangle. Let’s hope that is the start of their arrival and next session we can catch a bundle.
The most frustrating species seen today was Stonechat. Robin monitors the breeding birds at Blakehill Farm (amongst a number of other sites) and is aware of two successful nesting attempts there. That in itself is good news, as it is unusual and it would be great to see that happening on a regular basis. Not quite so good: whilst Sarah and David were closing the outer nets they saw at least four of them sitting atop the bushes and flitting around but never getting into the nets.
Alongside these were a Great Spotted Woodpecker, a couple of Robins, a Carrion Crow, some overflying Lesser Black-backed Gulls and a Kestrel that was seen hunting successfully on the plateau.
Whilst we were setting the nets up for the Mipit triangle we also had lovely views of a Hare running around the plateau.
So, I was disappointed that we didn’t have more to show the people, but they were all lovely and thanked us profusely for an enjoyable morning. I am not sure why I feel responsible for the weather, the number of birds caught etc. They are all outside of my control, but I do. Anyway, Whinchats!
I worry about my brain: just changed the month to September from August having published this yesterday and have 80-odd people wondering what I was wittering on about!
Another extremely good month for the group: with some special catches and a new site that looks promising.
Added to the list for this month compared to 2023 are: Coal Tit, Hobby, Linnet, Meadow Pipit, Nightjar, Reed Bunting and Stonechat. Missing from the list were: Great Spotted Woodpecker, Green Woodpecker, Mute Swan, Red Kite, Sparrowhawk, Spotted Flycatcher, Stock Dove, Tawny Owl and Woodpigeon. Of those missing from this list, the Sparrowhawk and the Red Kite were processed at the RSPCA Oak & Furrows rehab centre, so weren’t wild caught. So, if we strike those two off, we have the same number of species but with differences.
The average numbers per session are pretty similar with, on average, 1.6 more birds ringed per session and 2.2 more birds processed per session.
Birds where we had significantly higher catches than in August last year were: Blackbird (22 to 13); Blackcap (172 to 131); Chiffchaff (215 to 176); Goldcrest (29 to 7, 20 of them on my sites); Goldfinch (42 to 25); Nuthatch (15 to 1, all on my sites); Robin (96 to 78) and Sedge Warbler (42 to 28). Significant reductions were fewer: House Sparrow (2 to 19) and Whitethroat (54 to 95).
The highlights have to be:
Our first Hobby, Falco subbuteo, caught and processed at the Wiltshire Wildlife Trust reserve at Langford Lakes by Jonny Cooper. Photo courtesy of Justine Hadfield. Prior to the split, one was caught and ringed at Swindon Sewage Works in July 2009.
This is closely followed by three of these:
Nightjar, Caprimulgus europaeus, photo courtesy Dr Ian Grier.
Since 2020 Ian Grier and Andy Palmer have caught eight of them, all on Salisbury Plain training area, six of them in the Imber Valley area. All bar one has been caught in August, and this is the second time that three have been caught in the same month. It also happened in 2022.
For me, the highlight has to be the fifteen Nuthatches: all caught in my sites, with the 15th coming in my new site, Gospel Oak Farm, on the 31st. Prior to that, the most the group has caught in August is 10. The only months that the group has caught more were in March (16) and December (17) 2017: both were with the aid of supplementary feeding stations, whereas this catch was purely as a result of the right nest in the right place at the right time.
An excellent month, our second best ever August. Let’s hope that September follows suit!
Ringing In The Braydon Forest & Beyond 