Ringing In The Braydon Forest & Beyond

Despite my inactivity and failure to add more than 100 records to this month’s total (only 3 of my sessions got into double figures), this month registered as our largest catch in any month since the group came into its current structure at the beginning of 2013.  Most of that can be attributed to Jonny’s efforts, with 1,044 birds processed, and Langford Lakes producing 475 of them.  There was a decent amount of activity on Salisbury Plain, at two sites one in the Imber Ranges area and the other in the New Zealand Camp area, producing just under 360 birds processed.  The vast bulk of the catch, over 1300 of them, were new birds and, quite probably, already on Autumn migration.  There were some exceptional birds caught: unfortunately, despite requests, I have no photographs of them to share. Unfortunately, some members of our group are still of the opinion that the less said about bird ringing, the better. I am of the opposite view: the answer to ignorance is education, which is why I set up and run this blog and carry out so many ringing demonstrations, both formal and informal.

Regular blog readers will notice my two cheats in amongst the wild caught birds.  I was contacted through the blog by a falconer about two birds he was rehabilitating and wanted ringing.  The first was a second-year female Kestrel, that had managed to end up in a barrel that had contained some sort of resin and, unfortunately, there was enough left to make a mess of its plumage, with lots of feathers stuck together.  He has managed to separate many of the feathers, by judicious use of talcum powder, and will be keeping the bird until it has completed the moult of both body and flight feathers before releasing it back into the wild.  The second bird was this:

A juvenile, female Peregrine. I just didn’t realise how big they are.  She had a bruised wing and swollen joint, for which she is currently being treated. A local vet x-rayed her and confirmed there is no break in the wing.  Once healed she will be trained to hunt before final release back into the wild: the way falconry used to work in medieval times.  It would be interesting to know where she fledged from.  Clearly not from any publicly known site, otherwise she would already have been ringed. One thing that was really good about both recoveries is that they were found by local farmers who handed them over to be rehabilitated.

In terms of the wild birds caught, as you can see from the list, nearly every species was up on last year.  Clearly the highlight has to be the capture of three Nightjar in a single month. Prior to this month there had been only one caught by the group: that was in August 2020 at the Imber Ranges site.  Of this month’s three, two were caught on separate occasions at the New Zealand Camp site and the most recent at the Imber Ranges site again.  However, there were some other remarkable catches: amongst Jonny’s record haul there were 19 Kingfisher (16 ringed and 3 retrapped), all 69 Greenfinch processed (65 ringed and 4 retrapped) and 149 0f the 193 Chiffchaff processed (131 ringed and 18 retrapped).  Willow Warbler numbers were not only massively up on last year but it was our best ever monthly catch of the species at 107.  The previous highest was also in August: August of 2015 at 41.  The bulk of these came from Langford Lakes. Reed Warbler numbers were a little down on last year and Garden Warbler numbers also, but otherwise it was all very positive.

It was a fantastic month in what is shaping up to be a good year.

As a footnote, as a rule I don’t count things like ad hoc garden sessions as full sessions unless they result in more than 10 birds being caught.  I haven’t usually had to make a decision about that on proper site sessions until this month.  On my second post-operation session I went to Ravensroost Wood and, with Rosie’s help, set 4 x 18m nets along a particular ride that usually delivers upwards of 20 birds. We caught 3 in the hour-and-a-bit before Rosie headed off to work: and that was it.  I gave up after another 2 hours produced no birds.

On the 20th August I carried out a ringing demonstration at Blakehill Farm.  It is always a bit of a risky business, with the site being so weather dependent. Unfortunately, on the morning the breeze got up, affecting the plateau nets quite quickly, although the hedgerow nets were largely unaffected.  We had 20 adults and 4 children attending – and we caught just 8 birds, only 7 whilst the public were there.  I have to say, I have carried out dozens of these ringing demos and none of them has sparked as many emails thanking us for the experience as this one did. Too weird for words.  The catch was two each of Wren and Whitethroat and one each of Blackcap, Lesser Whitethroat, Willow Warbler and Tree Pipit.  The Tree Pipit delighted everybody, but especially Robin Griffiths and the rest of the Swindon Wildlife Group running it, as it was their first ever record for the site, although we did ring one previously, back in 2018.  One of the attendees, Teresa, has sent me a load of photos from the session, including this couple of the Tree Pipit: one showing its punk hairstyle and the other showing how we aged the bird:

And this is the entire bird:

Today was the last CES session at Lower Moor Farm for 2022. I have a big decision to make: is it actually the final CES session at this site? Today we caught a measly 19 birds. Admittedly it was a freak, but on the 20^th August 2014, my fourth visit to the site, I felt like a quiet session, so I just set the three 18m nets that now comprise ride 2 of my constant effort site, known as the Heronry Ride by the Trust.

In that session I actually caught 157 birds from 15 species. Today that ride delivered 12 birds from 7 species. It was the best return of any of the rides. Why the difference? I suppose the first thing to say is that the huge catch was a freak: and I have never got close to that since. 90 of those birds were migrant warblers. The second thing to say is that the structure has changed significantly. Although the path is still there and open, at the time the foliage that forms the barrier between the Heronry Ride and the adjacent path to the third hide on the site, was thinner and much lower. Between the path and the stream that forms the boundary between Wiltshire & Gloucestershire the willows were interspersed with massed banks of bramble, and I am certain it was the fruits of that which pulled them in.

In the following years the Trust became somewhat enamoured of creating scallops along rides, as a way of improving the habitat for butterflies and other insects. However, that required the removal of most of the bramble, the idea being that they would be replaced by wildflowers / plants that were more attractive to the insect world. Two things: the wildflower planting never happened, and the open spaces need continual maintenance to keep them open, which has also not happened. Since then, the stream-side woodland has closed in, and the open spaces have become completely occupied by nettles. I have nothing against nettles, but I don’t think they are particularly attractive to pollinators, whilst being a wonderful food plant for the offspring of so many insect species. The simple fact is, though, that what attracts the birds into that ride in the autumn is the crop of blackberries that now no longer exists.

Up until 2020, the small area adjacent to ride 2, known boringly as ride 1, was a single 12m net in the only patch of true woodland within the CES site. It was never a great catching net, but it did catch the odd excellent bird: Green Woodpecker and Kingfisher for two. In 2020 two of the trees collapsed, blocking the ride and the Trust decided on a new policy for the area. The Heronry Ride was put out of bounds to the general public, and the plan is to rewet the woodland area. I love the idea, even if I did lose one of the rides from the CES. As part of the programme, quite a lot of thinning happened along the stream side (I know, because I had to remove quite a lot of cut wood from the ride path prior to my next CES session!) but not on the opposite side. This thinned area has, once again, been colonised by nettles.

Then we move on to ride 4. Ride 4 runs from the gate into the wildlife refuge for a length of 2 x 18m nets. What started as a line of mature trees along the stream side, and a few low trees and scrub between the ride and Mallard Lake, has now grown up, and the numbers of birds have also dropped significantly. It will take a considerable amount of thinning work to turn that around. I think that is enough doom and gloom. The following table shows exactly what has happened. It is as if 2019 marked the high-water mark and 2020 destroyed the integrity of the CES site:

There is a lot of effort that goes into a CES. Twelve sessions between May and the end of August, roughly 10 days apart, and I would work mine for 5.5 hours at a time. If I am going to be processing fewer than 30 birds per session, i.e., less than 6 birds per hour, that is not a good use of my time, nor is it providing much by way of training for my team – and there is only so much coffee one can drink in a session. If the Trust allows me to thin out rides 2 and 4 over this winter, then I will try it out for another year.

Anyway, the results from this last session were: Blue Tit 1; Great Tit 2(1); Wren 1(1); Dunnock (2); Robin 1(2); Blackbird 4; Blackcap 2; Chiffchaff 1; Bullfinch 1. Totals: 13 birds ringed from 8 species and 6 birds retrapped from 4 species, making 19 birds processed from 9 species. All birds processed were birds fledged this year.

The total catch for the CES this year was: Sparrowhawk [1]; Green Woodpecker 1(1); Treecreeper 1[10](5); Blue Tit 2[37](7); Great Tit [16](5); Long-tailed Tit 1[25](6); Wren 3[12](7); Dunnock 1[6](14); Robin 2[23](13); Song Thrush 2[1]; Blackbird 3[6](8); Cetti’s Warbler 1[2](5); Blackcap 6[25](20); Garden Warbler 5[3](3); Whitethroat 2[1]; Chiffchaff 2[28](13); Willow Warbler [9]; Chaffinch [1]; Bullfinch 1[8](1); Reed Bunting [1]. Totals: 33 adults ringed from 15 species, 215 juveniles ringed from 19 species and 108 birds retrapped from 14 species, making 356 birds processed from 20 species.

It is still a lovely site, and I have every intention of continuing to work there, but I feel that I need to explore other areas of the site, mainly within the wildlife refuge.

I was approached, through the contact page of this blog, by a gentleman named Allan Gates, of the Mere Down Falconry Centre, about the possibility of my ringing two birds of prey that he is currently rehabilitating.

A few years ago I had a chat with the Oak & Furrows Wildlife Rescue Centre about the possibility of ringing birds that they have rehabilitated prior to release. They were quite keen, and so was I – they had the most astonishing number of Spotted Flycatcher juveniles brought in from local woodlands, that they were hand-rearing, and which were very close to fledging and, at the time, Spotted Flycatcher had not been ringed in the Braydon Forest area.

I contacted the BTO and found that the process involved creating a project plan, paying for a special licence, paying a premium on every ring used (volunteer ringers pay for every ring we use and the cheapest is about 25p these days – my Barn Owl rings cost £2.00 per), and one was supposed to also estimate the number of those birds that you would expect to recapture and pay a fee upfront for each expected recapture. I decided that was both too bureaucratic and too expensive for me to take it on: bureaucracy being the biggest factor. I am not keen on paperwork.

However, as one of the birds being rehabilitated was a Peregrine, I was excited at the possibility and contacted the BTO again. This time I was delighted to be told that, provided this was to be an ad hoc arrangement, there was no need to do any of what had previously been expected of me. Brilliant! The second bird is a Kestrel, with a very interesting tale to tell.

I arranged with Allan to visit his facility on Thursday afternoon. It really is a fascinating place with an astonishing collection of birds of prey. Allan doesn’t open to the general public, either taking specific bookings for tailored activities at his site, but also attending local shows and activities to inform, educate and display the birds.

We dealt with the Kestrel first. This was a second year female. She was found by a local farmer having somehow managed to get into a barrel that had previously held some resin. Unfortunately, there was enough of it left in and around the edges of the barrel to coat her feathers. So many of her primaries and secondaries had stuck together that it was impossible for her to fly. Allan has spent an age cleaning her up, and using talcum powder to help separate the feathers. Unfortunately, the vanes of the individual feathers themselves are still sticking together and she is still unable to fly. She has started her moult, and new, clean feathers are already in evidence. Allan will be monitoring her moult and, as soon as she has completed her moult, she will be released back into the wild. In the meantime she will be well cared for at the centre.

The second bird was the aforementioned Peregrine. What a stunning individual:

The bird was found on the ground unable to fly, holding its right wing in an awkward position, and brought to Allan for his attention. He took it to his local vet, who was happy to x-ray the bird. Fortunately, it showed that, although there was some bruising and swelling, the wing was not broken. It is now being treated with anti-inflammatory drugs and, hopefully, will be overcome its problems and soon be flying again.

It is a female bird that fledged this year. To me the most exciting thing about this bird is the fact that it was not already ringed! We hear all of the time about known nesting sites, which are monitored every year, and where the young are ringed in the nest, but this is Wiltshire and, outside of the pair on Salisbury Cathedral, records of breeding Peregrine Falcon are virtually non-existent. Where did it come from?

I was delighted to have the opportunity and very pleased to meet with Allan and Kayleigh, his assistant. Lovely people.

Well, what can I say, a ringing demonstration in which there were three times as many attendees as birds and only two more birds than the number of your team that turned up to help! It was really good. I had Ellie, Rosie, David and Anna arrive (at various times) to help with the set up and the take down and to do each of the net rounds, whilst I entertained the public and drank coffee!

There was always a risk with scheduling a ringing demonstration at Blakehill: it is so open and susceptible to the wind. On the other hand, there is a lot of early autumn migration at the moment and the possibility of a few decent birds is highest at that site. Unfortunately, although the wind was forecast to be quite low until 10:30, it got up pretty much from the start. The speeds that the forecast said would be the gusting speeds turned out to be the base speeds. The nets on the plateau bushes were most at risk, and were blowing out quite early on. However, they did catch five of the seven birds caught in the session before we had to shut them to ensure the safety of the birds.

Yes: seven birds! All new, so all needed ringing, and all juveniles. They were Wren 2; Tree Pipit 1; Blackcap 1; Whitethroat 2; Lesser Whitethroat 1. Why was it really good? Because of this bird:

This is only the second Tree Pipit ringed at Blakehill Farm, and Robin Griffiths, who carries out more coverage of wildlife on north Wiltshire Wildlife Trust sites than anyone else, including any Trust employees, was delighted to see his first ion any of those reserves.

Anna was also pleased: on her first session out for a number of weeks, due to the demands of her job, she got to ring her first ever Lesser Whitethroat! That was the bird of the morning as far as the attendees were concerned. It was a beautifully marked juvenile bird and everyone was wowed by it.

We closed the nets at 10:30, earlier than intended, but we weren’t getting any birds in the more protected hedgerow nets and the plateaus nets were just unusable. Everything was packed away and we cleared the site by 11:30: time for an early lunch!

With rain forecast for Wednesday I decided to move this session to Thursday. It proved to be the right decision: when I got up at about 8:00 on Wednesday morning the bucket I had left outside the house had an inch of water in it and it had only just finished raining. Rosie joined me this morning at 6:00 and we had the nets open quite quickly. I had decided that, as I would be working and packing away solo, I would leave the least productive (and furthest away) of my CES rides in the car.

The first bird out of the nets was a juvenile Cetti’s Warbler. It was great that Rosie could stay until about 8:45, and that she started her morning’s ringing with ringing her first Cetti’s Warbler (she had previously processed a retrap in June, but not ringed it). We had a reasonable catch up to the time Rosie left. Unfortunately, after she left the catch numbers went down quite a lot, and what looked like being a 40 to 50 bird catch ended up a 29 bird catch. That is not to say that it wasn’t an enjoyable session, but there is still no sign of Whitethroat or Lesser Whitethroat on the site.

The entire catch, bar one retrapped adult Blue Tit, comprised juvenile birds and was: Treecreeper [1]; Blue Tit [4](3); Great Tit [1]; Wren (1); Dunnock [1](1); Robin [2](2); Blackbird [1]; Cetti’s Warbler [1]; Blackcap [5](2); Chiffchaff [1](1); Willow Warbler [1]; Bullfinch [1]. Totals: 19 juveniles ringed from 11 species and 10 birds retrapped from 6 species, making 29 birds processed from 12 species.

As with the last session, a lot of the youngsters of sexually dimorphic species are beginning to show what sex they will be. Last week it was Blackcap, which continued this week. Also this week we had this young chap:

He looks pretty tatty because, unlike juveniles of sexually monomorphic species, he is moulting a high proportion of his original body feathers. Within the white circle you can see two pink feathers, as the belly and chest feathers all start to be replaced, indicating clearly that it is a male.

One of the more surprising bird catches at Lower Moor Farm is the Treecreeper. Apart from one, now defunct, 12m net in a bit of woodland, the nets are generally set either stream-side or lake-side, with a thin lining of trees, mainly different varieties of willow, Since I started ringing there in 2014, I have carried out 139 ringing sessions. In those sessions we have caught Treecreeper on 64 occasions. Essentially, an average of 1.31 Treecreeper per session when caught and 0.6 Treecreepers as a proportion of all ringing sessions.

You would expect that the Braydon Forest woodlands would produce a much better return. In the same timeframe that I have been regularly ringing at Lower Moor Farm, in my five woodland sites I have carried out 399 ringing sessions. The number of Treecreeper ringed is 141 in exactly 100 sessions. So, that’s 1.41 in woodland compared with the 1.31 on the edges of the old gravel pits that make up Lower Moor Farm. So far, so unsurprising. What is surprising though is that the average number ringed in the woodlands, as a proportion of all sessions, is only 0.35. Anyway, hopefully that is of interest to someone out there!

I was away from site just after 12:30. The last CES session of the year will be Saturday, 27th August.

I took the decision that, given the hot weather, lack of rain and the potential impact of that on the birds, to stop bird ringing until there was a break in the weather. However, my interests are not confined to birds, I love all wildlife and I thoroughly enjoy mothing.

I took up mothing in 2011. Started with a Skinner trap with a mercury-vapour light. Very quickly I got a bit fed up with the Skinner trap’s inability to retain specimens, so went the whole hog and bought a Robinson set up, which I have used ever since. Interestingly, at the same time I upgraded the trap, I purchased a dozen MV bulbs, assuming they would last like usual old-fashioned bulbs. So far I have used two of them!

Anyway, the point of this blog is the Wiltshire Wildlife Trust’s “Take Action for Insects” project being run by Michael New, Ecological Officer at the Trust. There were five of us in action: Michael, Colin, Paul, his daughter Stevie and me. We met up around 7:00 to be set up before dusk. There were four mothing stations set up.

I owe them all a debt of gratitude as, post-op, Michael was insistent that they would carry my kit to and from my selected mothing site. I had decided to set up at the bottom of the hill, close to the ponds on the central glade, so everything had to be carried down and then back up at the end. At least, with my 90m extension lead, the “portable” generator didn’t have to be carried all of the way down. My system was set up and switched on just before 8:00 and almost immediately started attracting insects. Next time I will be taking a face mask. Before any moths started appearing, a whole variety of different fly species arrived and I became enveloped in a swarm of the things. Next time I am taking a face mask and my jungle formula spray! I have no idea how many minute flies I inhaled and otherwise ingested but I probably had my protein ration for this week.

The first moths that I saw were some grass moths that were disturbed by my walking to get away from the light to leave the flies behind. I had remembered to take my bat detector with me and was very pleased to identify both Common and Soprano Pipistrelle hunting around my part of the woodland.

The first moth recorded for the night was by Paul & Stevie, with a Square-spot Rustic. I don’t know what the others caught that night but I had an extremely satisfactory session. However, unlike in my garden, the bulk of what I caught were micro-moths and, so, sorting them out has been a challenge. My list is:

I have highlighted Metalampra italica because it is a relatively recent addition to the British list, first recorded in 2003, but spreading quite rapidly. It was thought to be endemic to Italy, hence the specific name, but it is not known if it is a range expansion north-west through Europe or an accidental introduction. Unfortunately, it is the worst photograph I took! Thanks to Robin Griffiths for identifying it for me.

Anyway, here are a few photos from Saturday night, starting with some Micros:

Now a few Macros:

Once again, thank you to Michael and the team for helping me so mcuh on Saturday night. I started emptying the trap at 11:30 and, being the lightweight that I am, was away from site by quarter past midnight, leaving the others to continue their session.

It will be back to birds tomorrow – CES 11 at Lower Moor Farm.

Although I have cancelled my bird ringing session for this weekend, because it is just too hot, and I think the birds don’t need any additional interference in their lives whilst dealing with this weather. Some are still rearing their last broods and / or fattening up for / starting their migration and I am happy to let them get on with it.

As the forecast is for it to be cooling down from Tuesday, getting some rain from Sunday, I am hoping for a session on Wednesday.

However, it was nice to get a call out of the blue from a local farmer and asked to go and ring the Barn Owl chicks in his box. I didn’t know him but he managed to find me through the Wiltshire Wildlife Trust and their “What’s On” pages. Thanks to Robin Griffiths, volunteer warden and wildlife surveyor par excellence, for putting him in touch with me.

I had a chat and we agreed to meet up on Friday at 8:30, before it got too hot. I turned up to be met by the farmer, his wife and son and his farmhand. Due to my recent operation I am not allowed to carry anything heavy for another three to four weeks. We had agreed that they would carry the ladder to the barn, which they did, but it turned out that they had a tractor with a cherry-picker front, so that made the whole procedure much easier. Apparently some people are more scared of working from that than from the top of a ladder!

The farmer has a camera on the nest and thought he had four chicks, but it turns out he had five. I love it when you open the box to be met with a chorus of hissing. For one thing, it shows they are of a good size to ring. All were in good condition, all still downy but have just started growing their primary feathers and the oldest two had their head feathers showing well. It seemed only right to get the farmer and his farmhand to hold the birds for me to ring them: which I know they enjoyed immensely.

The adults haven’t been seen in the daytime yet, which would often be a sign of a lack of prey, so, hopefully, stocks of short-tailed voles, field mice, etc are holding up well despite the weather.

Despite my having been out of action for the last 4 weeks, this takes this year’s total of juvenile Barn Owls ringed to 21, compared with last year’s total of 26 juveniles and one adult. Hopefully by the end of September we will have matched last year’s total: I do know I still have a number of other boxes to check and they could well be on second broods now.

On Wednesday of last week, I decided that it was time I ran my first full session since my spinal operation. Not wanting to overdo it, I decided to set just 4 x 18m nets in Ravensroost Woods along the main track north of the public bridleway. Rosie, as ever, came along to help me set up, and stayed until she had to go off to work at 8:00. We met at 6:00 and had the nets open at 6:30. We caught three birds in between opening the nets and Rosie leaving for work : a Treecreeper, a Robin and a Blue Tit. Unfortunately, those were the only birds, caught until I got fed up and packed away at 10:00.

So to today. Nobody was available to help me over the weekend, but Ellie said that, as she was working from home on Monday, she could come and help me set up and do some ringing until just before 9:00 and, even better, come back at 12:30 to help me pack away at the end of the session, whilst having her various meetings in between. We met at 6:00 and had the nets open by 7:30. There was a bit of a wait before things started to move, and we didn’t catch our first birds until just before 8:00. It was never the busiest session: four or five birds per round but it was enjoyable, although the last hour, when packing away, was too hot. Next time I will start an hour earlier and finish an hour earlier.

Just before Ellie had to leave, she came back with a pair of juvenile Bullfinch from what is designated ride 2. The very next round, from the same ride and the same net, I extracted another couple of them. I am pretty sure that they were all four from the same brood.

It was a varied catch but, like my other sites this year, no sign of Whitethroat or Lesser Whitethroat. It is a little concerning. The top bird of the morning was a very fresh, young, Reed Bunting. It was the first of that age that we have caught at the site for over three years.

The list for the day was: Treecreeper [1]; Blue Tit [1]; Great Tit [2]; Long-tailed Tit 1; Wren [2](1); Dunnock (2); Robin [6](2); Blackbird (2); Blackcap [7](1); Garden Warbler [1]; Chiffchaff [1]; Willow Warbler [1]; Bullfinch [4]; Reed Bunting [1]. Totals: 27 juveniles ringed from 11 species; 1 bird ringed of indeterminate age (the Long-tailed Tit was too far gone through its moult to tell adult or juvenile apart) and 8 birds recaptured from 5 species. Of the recaptured birds the Dunnocks, Robin and Wren were also juveniles.

A couple of photos to finish. The first is a juvenile Blackcap in the last throes of its post-fledging moult: the head is showing black feathers coming through the juvenile brown on the head, identifying it as a male:

The second is a bird I find particularly difficult to photograph: a Treecreeper. I have settled on a wing shot to show up the key diagnostic feature for distinguishing juveniles from adults once they have completed the post-fledging moult:

The reason I find them so difficult to photograph is that, with their down-curved bill and habitually humped shoulders, they always look so miserable and I have had quite enough of others making negative comments about photos of birds in the hand (usually other ringers, they aren’t all as relaxed and easy going as me).

We got cleared away and left site by 13:15: in time for Ellie to get back to her first meeting of the afternoon and me to get home and realise I have a way to go yet before I am fully fit again.

What a month! The headline has to be Jonny’s Icterine Warbler at Langford Lakes.  An absolutely stunning catch: only the fourth record of the species in the county.  The first was a bird heard singing back in June 1944!  The second, and first one of the species ringed, was near Longbridge Deverill in August 2009.  The next was ringed by Graham’s team on SPTA in August 2020 and now the first for the West Wilts group was at Langford Lakes on the 23rd July.

The results for the month were:

As you can see, the average catches were much larger but the variety was somewhat lower.  Missing were Barn Owl, Carrion Crow, Grasshopper Warbler, Nuthatch, Skylark, Coal Tit, Grey Wagtail, Tree Pipit and Whinchat.  Interestingly, the Carrion Crow and Nuthatches were caught and ringed in Biss Wood, the Grey Wagtails at Langford Lakes, the Coal Tits at Webb’s Wood, the Tree Pipit at New Zealand Farm and the Grasshopper Warbler, Skylarks and Whinchat were all at Ladywell in the Imber Valley.  What I don’t understand is why this site is visited so rarely: just three times since 2017! In my mind there is a serious issue over the allocation and utilisation of sites on Salisbury Plain. I have asked the Defence Infrastructure Organisation on a couple of occasions what their strategy is for monitoring habitats and wildlife on the Plain. To me it is piecemeal and unstructured and pretty much worse than useless for managing the area. Their response was to complain to the BTO that I was harassing them. I won’t say any more on this other than to confirm that the BTO were not supportive and the likelihood of me ever getting the chance to carry out my usual consistent surveys, reporting and analysis to the landowners is not going to happen anywhere on Salisbury Plain any time soon.

The lack of Barn Owls is entirely down to my being out of action from the 7th of the month until I managed a small session at the Ravensroost Meadow pond on Saturday. That was a weird session: all of the Whitethroat and Lesser Whitethroat that were there in good number at the end of May were completely missing from the site. It is hard to understand when, given the weather, the site has excellent nesting habitat, water and insects galore to feed their young.  I wonder what the cause was?  Given that Lesser Whitethroat were missing from my site, it was one of the species caught this year that was not caught last July.

This year we added the aforementioned Icterine Warbler, more Canada Geese and Lesser Whitethroat.  Why the massive increase in numbers? Simply: Blackcap and Chiffchaff numbers were massively improved over last year.  Increased numbers of Cetti’s Warbler and twice as many Wren as last year,  Amongst the retrapped birds, the key increase was in the number of Blue and Great Tit recaptures. So we averaged nearly 20 birds more per session.

As mentioned, I have been incapacitated due to spinal problems, an operation, and then a bout of sciatica, which has just about gone now, but has severely impacted on my activities and will continue to do so for a few weeks yet.  So, thanks to Jonny for taking on two of my CES sessions.  Hopefully enough of my team will be available to help me through the three remaining sessions.

We are also saying au revoir to Alice.  I am delighted to say that she has been awarded her S-permit, and will be teaming up with Oliver Padgett to create the Oxford Ringing Group.  It has been an absolute delight having her as a trainee, and I am so pleased for her achievement. Who’s next?

This was my first session out since my spinal operation on the 12^th July. It was a bit of an experiment to see how I / my body would cope. The first few outings I have had have been more than a little sore. My post-op regime, proposed by the hospital’s physio department, has been regular 20 minutes sitting and then a brief period of exercise, and repeat. That pretty well sums up a bird ringing session: 20 minutes sitting and processing the birds before carrying out the next extraction round.

I had the estimable Rosie come along to help me set up, before disappearing to work, and David joined me for the whole session. Trevor, his dad, arrived in time to help us with the taking down. All in all, I coped pretty well, except for the last 10 minutes of taking down the nets, which meant I was on my feet for about 40 minutes, and I felt it. That rather draws the line under what I am currently capable of.

To the session itself. It was rather odd: where have all of the Whitethroat disappeared to? They were very obvious by their presence in my last session there in late May. Lots of evidence for breeding and, on this date two years ago, we caught ten of them: nine juveniles and one adult. In fact, the same can be said for Lesser Whitethroat, same number at the last session in May and none around today.

The list was actually dominated by juvenile Wrens, as follows: Blue Tit [2]; Wren [5]; Dunnock 2; Robin [2]; Blackcap 2[1]; Chiffchaff 1(1). Totals: 5 adults ringed from 3 species, 10 juveniles ringed from 4 species and 1 bird retrapped, making a total of 16 birds processed from 6 species. Not the biggest catch but, as David hasn’t been out for over a month and me for two weeks, it was enough.

We had a lure of for Swallow, and there were plenty skimming the fields, but they weren’t dropping in for a drink and they missed the causeway net. That net did provide a Chiffchaff, two Blue Tits and a Wren. It also provided a Chaffinch, with the worst case of Fringilla papillomavirus that I have seen for a very long time.

After David and Trevor had carried all of the kit back to the car for me, I had a sit to enjoy the peace and quiet (and recover a bit) watching the Swallows, when the tranquility was disturbed by the agitated calling of a Jay. For the few minutes I was treated to this Jay making life very uncomfortable for a female Sparrowhawk. A very fine finish to a quiet but enjoyable session.