Ringing In The Braydon Forest & Beyond

It is 13 months since my last session in the northern part of Ravensroost Wood. The key reason for that is the amount of forestry work that has been, and is being, carried out in that area. There is more significant work scheduled for this winter. I went that last time to see what impact the work might have had. In that session we caught and ringed 15 birds from six species: Blue Tit 1: Great Tit 2; Wren 3; Robin 4; Blackcap 2; Chiffchaff 3. Today I thought I would have a look to see if things had changed.

With the weather forecast to be likely to start raining at about 11:00 we agreed to meet at 6:00 so we could get a few hours in before then. I was joined by Miranda and Ellie, which in itself is slightly unusual, their being my midweek stalwarts of recent times. We set the following nets:

It was very slow to start with: we got very few birds in each round, and it was weird: three Wrens in one, four Robins in another. What was fun, though, was that we had several families come through, happily when we actually had a few birds to hand. The first family had four children, two of whom were willing and pleased to be able to learn how to safely hold and release a bird, both Robins.

So, we were slowly accumulating a couple of birds, with a few dead rounds in between. We did our second family education set at about 10:15, this time with two slightly older girls, Mum and Dad all getting to learn the trade. They were a little luckier than the first group in that we had the Robin and Wren combo, but we also had a lovely juvenile male Goldcrest. They went off for a wander, promising to come back within the half hour to see if we had any more to show.

The unluckiest person this morning was Ellie. She knew she had to leave a bit early to get home to Cheltenham because she was working from lunchtime. She left at about 10:00 to give herself plenty of time. The family had returned from their walk and, as we were “apologising” for not having any birds to show them, a bird hit the end of ride 3, nearest to us. This was only the second bird that whole net set caught in the session, the first being a Wren, the first out of the net in our session. Miranda went to retrieve it and came back with this:

Had it arrived before Ellie had left, she would have ringed her first ever Firecrest, as Miranda did her first in October last year, at Red Lodge. This is a significant bird for the site: only the second ever recorded on the site, let alone ringed. The first was caught and ringed (and subsequently seen by a few local birders there) in the eight-year coppice area, nearly 10 years ago! (November 2015, by Jonny Cooper in his first year as a ringing trainee, lucky beggar!). We have only caught and processed five in total in the Braydon Forest. However, with this one, the last three have been caught in the last 10 months, neatly shared between Red Lodge, Somerford Common and Ravensroost Wood – just Webb’s Wood and the Firs to go!

The Firecrest was quickly followed by a Treecreeper: another treat for our very pleasant and enthusiastic audience. With no birds in rounds at 11:00 and 11:15, we closed the nets and took down, with the pack up completed by midday.

The list for the session was: Treecreeper 1; Wren 2(1); Robin 7; Blackcap 1; Willow Warbler 1; Goldcrest 1; Firecrest 1. Totals: 14 birds ringed from 7 species and 1 bird retrapped, making 15 birds processed from 7 species. All birds ringed were juveniles. So, the same number as last visit, but a much better variety / quality of catch.

Lovely though the Firecrest, Goldcrest and Willow Warbler were, to have 50% of the birds ringed to be juvenile Robins is remarkable. Not our biggest catch of them, but the absolute highest proportion of them in any catch in Ravensroost Wood, and on track to produce our largest catch of Robin juveniles in the Ravensroost complex: currently standing at 18 birds, with 26 in 2017 being the target.

I suspect it will be at least another year before I try out this part of Ravensroost Wood again, however, I will be carrying out a session further down the track, adjacent to the ponds at the north of the wood, before the end of the year.

It turned out not to be the best day to get out. I moved our scheduled session for Blakehill to Saturday, replacing today’s session with a visit to Somerford Common. That was done because the Saturday forecast was for 2mph winds, gusting to 4mph, perfect for Blakehill, and the wind was destined to be 5 to 10mph, gusting to 25mph, coming from the south-west. Saturday’s forecast was nearly spot on. I was joined this morning by Sarah and we set our nets:

Unfortunately, the breeze got up at about 9:00, and from completely the opposite direction to that which was forecast. The combination of bright sunshine and the nets billowing in the breeze was not conducive to a big catch, and that is how it turned out. To be clear: they were not blowing so much that they were dangerous to the birds, just very visible.

We saw and heard a lot of birds this morning: a decent flock of Long-tailed Tits, several Nuthatch calling and drumming, Jay, Great Tit all flying around our area, but not one of those was caught this morning. The Nuthatch, in particular, spent the morning teasing us with constant calling in a back and forth across the site.

As Sarah doesn’t manage to get out too often, I scribed and left her to process all of the birds that we caught. It was a nice catch, given that it wasn’t very large. The breakdown was: Blue Tit [1]; Robin [2](1); Blackcap 1[6]; Willow Warbler [1]; Goldcrest [3]. Totals: 1 adult ringed, 13 juveniles ringed from 5 species and 1 bird retrapped (a juvenile Robin), making 15 birds processed from 5 species.

It is not that the catch wasn’t without interest. We do not catch a lot of Blackcaps on Somerford Common these days. In our first three years ringing at Somerford Common, 2013 to 2015 inclusive, we ringed 35, 19 and 33 respectively. Since then the numbers have significantly reduced. However, so far this year we have caught 15. Since 2016, that is our equal best total for any full year, with 2020, with plenty of time for us to add to that. The seven caught this morning is our second best single session total since 2016.

It was a notable session for Sarah. She got to ring her first ever Willow Warbler. She had previously processed a retrapped bird, but hadn’t ringed one:

The three Goldcrest that she ringed today were her third to fifth. They are also part of our biggest ever August catch of the species at Somerford Common, taking it to 10 in two sessions.

With the wind getting stronger, and the sun getting hotter, we closed the nets at 11:45 and took down. We would have been off site quite quickly but we got into a lovely conversation with a couple of women walking their dog. They were very interested in what we had been doing and were really positive about it. One turned out to be a vet working for APHA (the Animal & Plant Health Agency). We had a pretty good discussion on a number of topics, particularly the difficulty APHA have in monitoring pheasant shoots for HPAI, as they are termed domestic animals when penned, wildlife (bad joke) when released, unless they are then fed by the shoots, whereupon they become domestic livestock again. Suffice to say, we have a shared opinion. As a parting exchange, it turns out that we live one street apart in Purton. Small world syndrome.

Back to the plateau at Blakehill Farm to see whether we have any more migrants coming through. Without the hedgerow to help, as it was laid last winter and is beginning its grow back, but it will take a year or so before it becomes productive again, the catch can be very hit and miss. Last session, on the 11th August, we were happy with a good catch of Whitethroat, Lesser Whitethroat and Stonechat. We did see a couple of Meadow Pipit but didn’t catch them.

Once again, today we set our Mipit triangle, and I will keep doing do so until we find that they have arrived and we start catching them. I was joined by David, Laura and Adam, with Daniel and, later on, Mark and Trevor to help with the packing up and general chatting in between rounds. We set the following nets:

I have had a chat with Jonathan, the farm manager, and he has agreed that, on the days that we are going to be ringing out on the plateau, they will use their GPS management system to keep the cattle away from our ringing area. The yellow lines indicate the boundary for when we are on site. I selected it so that we were not cutting off access to any of the water troughs.

We started with three birds: a Wren and two Whitethroats. Our next round produced four of these beauties:

Essentially, we caught 14 birds in the first hour and another five in the next three hours before we decided to pack up and go home. Once again, no Meadow Pipits in the nets yet, but a couple flying around.

The list for the session was: Blue Tit [2]; Great Tit [1]; Wren (1); Whinchat [4]; Whitethroat 1[3](3); Lesser Whitethroat [1]; Chiffchaff [1]; Willow Warbler [1]; Greenfinch [1]. Totals: 1 adult ringed, 14 juveniles ringed from 8 species and 4 birds recaptured from 2 species, making 19 birds processed from 9 species.

So, one bird fewer than our last session on the 11th, but better variety: nine species processed against five. Both of these sessions have been interesting for differing reasons.

With the exception of a single bird caught in the Ravensroost Meadows area in September 2018, we have only ever caught Whinchat at Blakehill Farm, and those were all on the plateau. We have had some good years, notably 2018 (15), 2020 (10) and 2021 (12). Both 2022 and 2023 were blank, but 2024 had four, caught in September and now we have four caught in August. This is only the third time we have caught them in August, the others were in 2015 and 2020. The most we have ever caught was 15 in 2018, fingers crossed for something similar this year.

The most unusual bird caught was the Greenfinch. We caught four back in 2016 and one in 2020, but they were all caught along the perimeter track hedgerow, today’s was the first that we have caught on the plateau.

The number of Whitethroat continues to grow: we have now processed 29 this year so far in the Braydon Forest: 23 ringed and 6 retrapped. Our best year ever, and Blakehill is certainly adding to that, with 13 ringed and 3 retrapped already.

Anyway, we checked the nets regularly until midday when we shut up shop and went home. A satisfactory session: more birds would have been good, but the variety again helped make up for it. Daniel and Adam got to process their first ever Whinchat, Laura her second and David his third. Laura also got to process her first Greenfinch. I think they were relatively happy with that outcome.

With the weather forecast for it to be dry and windy, with gusts up to 26mph, coming from the north-east, I decided that we had to be inside Webb’s Wood, rather than trying my new site just to the south of the wood. I will get there one day, fourth time lucky! I was joined by Laura, Adam and Ellie. We met at 6:30 and set the following nets:

It was definitely a weird session: just three birds caught and processed between 7:30 and 8:45. Then we had 41 between 8:45 and 10:00, and then nothing until 11:00. The weather was also weird. It was cloudy, as forecast. It was windy, from the north-east, as forecast, but it also produced regular periods of light drizzle, interspersed with the sun trying to break through, before clouding over again, completely against the forecast. The thing is, though, this unforecast odd weather coincided with our periods of catching birds.

Anyway, it was a decent catch. Every bird caught was a juvenile except for one of the Blue Tits and the retrapped Chiffchaff. The catch was: Blue Tit 11; Great Tit 3; Long-tailed Tit 2; Wren 4; Robin 3; Song Thrush 1; Blackcap 9; Chiffchaff 7(1); Willow Warbler 1; Goldcrest 2. Totals: 43 birds ringed from 10 species and 1 retrapped bird, making 44 birds processed from 10 species.

After an hour from 10:00, with three empty rounds, we decided to close the nets and take down. Between us, it did not take long to get everything packed away and we were off-site by 11:30 and home for an early lunch.

It was an enjoyable session, even though there were no stunners in the catch. Catching our third Willow Warbler of the year was rather good – as we catch very few in Webb’s Wood. However, this year we have caught and processed 26 Chiffchaffs. That is our largest ever catch of them in Webb’s Wood. What is more, 16 of those have been caught during the May to July period inclusive, the breeding season, if you like, with a further eight today. All of our other larger catches have been in April, either on passage or setting up territory.

Introduction and the Birds

Rosie and I have been trying to get this bio-blitz done for a couple of months now but something always seemed to get in the way: unavailability of volunteers, wind or rain (yes, rain) and thunderstorms. Last night Rosie and I went and set up the moth trap to run overnight.

Driving onto the site, following the track down to the Whitworth Building, I had the delight of seeing a Brown Hare sitting on the plateau, no more than 3m from my car window. It looked at me as I slowed down, before taking off across the plateau to get away. Unfortunately no camera to hand!

The ringing team and Rosie met up at 6:30 by the Whitworth Building, to get the nets set up. My team was David, Laura and Adam, with Mark coming along to help with the set up. We set the following nets:

Rosie’s blitz team were arriving at 8:00, they were Andy, Tracie, Pete and Chris.

The first thing that Rosie and I did on arriving was to switch off the moth trap: it was covered with Hornets, and inside the trap were a whole load more. Perhaps even more surprising, the white sheet upon which the trap was set was absolutely covered in small Back Swimmers, Lesser Water boatmen, family Corixidae. There was, however, a lovely collection of moths. We left everything in situ, ready for the blitz team, and got on with setting the nets. I am pleased to say that the Hornets were 1) native and 2) didn’t sting anyone, although we are pretty sure that they ate a few moths, as there were some wings unattached to bodies in the trap, particularly that of a Dusky Thorn, Ennomos fuscantaria.

The first bird into the nets flew in just as we finished opening them: a Wren. It did its usual: flew in span around in the net and crawled through to the other side of the pocket. Wrens have one purpose in this world: to torture trainees. I let one of the team have a go for a short while before rescuing them from torment.

The session got underway quite nicely after that: with birds coming in during every round. I left the team to carry out all of the extractions and processing, relegating myself to scribe for the session. In between, I became the de facto moth expert, helping identify the species, as far as was possible. One thing that was a great help is an app known as ObsIdentify. I am pretty good at macro moths but plenty of the micros are difficult. It did a decent job of most of them, but went a bit awry on several occasions. I will come back to the moths and other insects in the next post.

It was quite a steady catch, a few birds at a time, until 11:00, when we caught a small flock of titmice and then back to steady. Our usual catch when solely netting in this field is around the 20 to 25 bird mark, so we were happy to know that we were going to exceed that.

The list for the session was: Treecreeper [1]; Blue Tit [9](1); Great Tit [4]; Long-tailed Tit 3(1); Wren [2]; Robin [5]; Blackcap [5]; Whitethroat [1]; Lesser Whitethroat [2]; Chiffchaff [5]; Goldfinch [3]. Totals: 3 unaged from 1 species, 37 juveniles ringed from 10 species and 2 birds retrapped from 2 species, making 42 birds processed from 11 species. This is our best catch in this single field. However, disappointingly, no House Sparrows. The 9m net that runs from the farmyard gate to T-junction with the 12m and 18m nets is usually an absolute dead cert for this species. We could hear them, just didn’t catch any.

Significant in the catch was another two Lesser Whitethroat, taking our annual total to 11, the best for five years, nearly three times the size of the catch last year with the bulk of the autumn migration to come. When one looks at the figures for the Braydon Forest component of our catch, 10 of them, that is our second best catch ever, with 11 in 2017 being the best. Hopefully we will match, or pass, that this year.

Our Braydon Forest Whitethroat catch, with 19 ringed, is the best since 2019 and 2020, when both also had 19, and we need to ring another eight to match the best year, 2017. In fact, the Braydon Forest is the only area in which we have caught them this year. My other main area, Lower Moor Farm, has been devoid of them, but their numbers there have been declining since 2020, with just one last year, none in 2023 and three in 2022.

We did see some significantly large flocks of Goldfinch flying around, but they were all at tree top height. They are not a regular catch at this side of Blakehill Farm, best catch was on the Chelworth side, on the 20th September 2015, with 69! In three weeks that year we caught and ringed 102 of them in three sessions. However, we were pleased to get three this session:

These three were very much late brood birds. One of them hadn’t started its post-fledging moult, and the other two had a small amount of pin, no sign of facial mask development.

As well as the birds caught and processed, we observed quite a few additional species flying around the site. The sighting list was: Cormorant, Buzzard, Kestrel, Woodpigeon, Swallow, Carrion Crow, Rook, Jackdaw, Magpie.

We closed the nets at midday, and the blitz team mucked in to help us to get everything taken down and packed away, so it didn’t take long. The ringing team headed off, as did I, after a chat with the others as they tried to eat their lunch, and then I left them to do part 2.

I will blog about the other flora and fauna once Rosie has managed to work her way through all of the other records.

Our plan for today was to go for a large catch, hoping for a few early migrant species. I intended to put nets along the entire field margin, as well as the usual positions around the pond area. On Tuesday I did a recce to check that the access was going to be okay. I was delighted to see that the farm crew had mown the path down to our ringing area, and that the hay had been cropped and removed from the field. I had a look in the two fields in which the Belted Galloways have over-summered, and checked our field, where they haven’t been seen at all. No sign of them: all good stuff. So I loaded the car with all my long nets, and the short nets for the pond area, plus the appropriate number of poles, guys and spikes (i.e. virtually everything). Arriving on site at 6:15 I drove onto the field. Pretty much straight away a large black head poked around the corner of a hedgerow opening from the far side of the field. That was followed immediately by a dozen Beltie bullocks. It was a little race for me to get to the ringing area, open the gate and get the car backed in and out of the way before they reached me. Just managed it. I have made the mistake of leaving the car out in the field with the Belties before: it took two goes through a car wash to get their dried slobber off it! Never again! I wandered over to the gate into the field to warn the others to park outside. I hadn’t realised that all of the gates between the fields, apart from one pen-forming complex, have been removed. Not sure when, as we have run several sessions in the pond area this year, with nets out in the field, without a visit from the Belties.

Obviously, that put paid to my grandiose plans, so we set the usual nets in the pond area plus two extras. I was joined for the morning by Miranda, Laura, Adam and Ellie.

We had the nets open by 7:30 and started catching straight away. The first round produced two Whitethroat: a juvenile and an adult female ringed back in our last session at this site. It was one of those mornings where we would have birds, empty, birds, empty, etc as the rounds progressed. Not quite that bad but near to.

Our second round produced four birds: two Blackcap, a Lesser Whitethroat and our first ever Redstart for the site. Since the start of 2013 we had caught just 11 in both the Braydon Forest and Lower Moor Farm, nine at Blakehill Farm and two at Lower Moor Farm. Adam had extracted his first back at Blakehill Farm last year. He didn’t get to ring it so, today, having extracted his second, he got to ring his first!

Our next successful round produced our biggest catch of the morning: eight birds, but a very nice little group, three Wrens were a bit humdrum, but we also had a Blackcap, Whitethroat, Lesser Whitethroat, Goldcrest and Miranda coming back with a secretive smile on her face. She had extracted her first ever Swallow, and got to ring her first ever Swallow. This Swallow is the first we have caught at this site for four years, so a very welcome catch. Between 2015 and 2017 inclusive, we would regularly catch 25 Swallows in a session. Unfortunately, due to the ponds becoming overgrown with Reed Mace and rushes, and the causeway becoming choked with blackthorn scrub, the nice open track through the two ponds, over the causeway, became blocked. I am delighted to say that the Trust have designated budget for the restoration of the whole area, and have allowed me to advise on the changes to be made, and I have volunteered to help.

It was becoming a really pleasant morning. That was helped by the weather. Despite the forecast being for bright sun and high temperatures in line with the current heatwave, throughout the morning, until we were packing up, the sun did not put in an appearance. We had very low cloud cover and some very refreshing mizzle. Nobody complained.

The next round produced another seven birds: Blackbird, Blackcap, Robin and Bullfinch plus, astonishingly, another two Redstart! Ellie got to ring her first and Laura her second. To have gone from none for just about 12 years to three in one session is lovely.

After those two rounds things died right off, with just a Blue Tit and a Willow Warbler in one and a Chiffchaff in the last. The Willow Warbler was stunningly coloured: very bright yellows, a lovely bird.

The total catch for the morning was: Swallow [1]; Blue Tit [1]; Wren 1[2]; Redstart 1[2]; Robin [1]; Blackbird 1; Blackcap [5](1); Whitethroat [2](1); Lesser Whitethroat [2]; Chiffchaff [1]; Willow Warbler [1]; Goldcrest [1]; Bullfinch [1]. Totals: 3 adults ringed from 3 species, 20 juveniles ringed from 12 species and 2 birds retrapped from 2 species, making 25 birds processed from 13 species.

It might be passé to some but to get 13 species in just 25 birds is remarkable to me. With a reasonable size team out I was a bit worried about whether there would be enough to keep them happy. The fact that every one of them got to ring a species special to them, and for three of them, a first for their ringing careers, ensured they were happy. We started packing up at 11:15, as things had died away so much, extracted the one last bird, the Chiffchaff, which Adam and I processed whilst the others continued taking down. The team is working well together, as everybody gets more experienced, and everything was cleared away for us to be off-site before midday.

I had promised myself that the next calm day I would get out onto the plateau at Blakehill Farm. Reports are that autumn migration has started already and this is our best site for catching birds on migration. The other reason is that I wanted to know if the Meadow Pipits had arrived on site yet, as there is usually a large over-wintering population there, as anyone who has read these blogs over the years will know. The forecast for today was for it to be more or less flat calm, 2 to 4mph, with gusts to 5mph early, growing to 10mph by 11:00, but still with a low basal wind speed.

Ellie, Laura, Adam and Daniel joined me at the Chelworth Industrial Estate side of Blakehill Farm. From there we have access to the plateau area where we set our nets. They are set by the bushes that form a semi-circle along the line of the mooring points for what was once a huge radio mast when the area was a World War 2 airfield. It is the place from which Canadian troops were despatched to the ill-fated Arnhem expedition “Monty’s Folly” as it is known. There is a memorial to their sacrifice there.

I say the session was short and sweet. Short, because we were on site from 6:30 until midday, but were really only active between 8:00 and 11:00, and the birds were only active between 8:00 and 10:00. This is possibly because the wind gusts became considerably stronger and more frequent than forecast. Sweet, we will get to that soon. It could also be that, with Laura toddling off at 9:45 to pick up their rabbit from his holiday camp, and Ellie having to leave to get to work, they weren’t interested in entertaining the males left behind.

Recently the perimeter hedge was cut back and properly laid, to improve it as a habitat in the future. It has meant, being the first summer since the part of it adjacent to our ringing area was cut, that the hedge does not look particularly inviting as a ringing site. We decided to try it out anyway, using a couple of 18m two-shelf nets. Despite some movement along the hedgerow the nets didn’t catch anything. We did have one bird hit the net and bounce off, but that was all. It will improve.

This is what we set:

I am not sure why it took us so long to get the nets open, we had two teams going. We actually set the nets in reverse order so, having done the outer nets we went to set up the Mipit triangle. Prior to the session, I had been in touch with Jonathan, the farmer, and established that the cattle would be grazing away from were we would set our nets. Arriving on site we could see them on the far side of the plateau. However, when we started on the Mipit nets there was a stampede of cattle heading our way: and I mean fast running cattle heading our way. I panicked and phoned Jonathan and, good man that he is, he hopped on his quad bike to come and shepherd them away. As he was heading over, before he got to us, the cattle came to a grinding halt, literally a few metres from where we were. Younger members of the team heard some high pitched noise, which I didn’t. This is the new GPS technology, linking to the management collars, that are being used instead of traditional electric fencing. The yellow line shows where their boundary is. We had just net 3 within the boundary and I decided I was prepared to risk it. Fortunately, I needn’t have worried.

So to the sweet bit, the catching, the first round produced nine birds: four Whitethroat, two Lesser Whitethroat, two Stonechat and a Willow Warbler. What a nice start to the proceedings. This was followed thirty minutes later by another seven birds: another four Whitethroat, another Stonechat, Lesser Whitethroat and Willow Warbler. That was the end of the multiples. We had an empty round before catching another Whitethroat, and then nothing until we decided to take down, whereupon we got another Lesser Whitethroat and two Wrens!

So, in total, the catch was: Wren [1](1); Stonechat 1[2]; Whitethroat 1[8]; Lesser Whitethroat 1[3]; Willow Warbler [2]. Totals: 3 adults ringed from 3 species, 16 juveniles ringed from 5 species and 1 retrap, making 20 birds processed from 5 species.

Catching nine Whitethroat in a single session is our second best ever catch of the species. The largest was 10 in Ravensroost Meadows on the 10th July 2020. Guess where we are going to be working on Wednesday?

Three Stonechat are not unusual in the autumn but, prior to this, we had only caught two singles: both in August 2020. It is the first time that we have caught three in August. Most catches are in September and October. However, I was having a real problem deciding on the age of this particular Stonechat:

I was 100% sure of species but not of age. After inspecting the wing plumage, nice and fresh, and the fact that it had feathers in pin all over the body, I decided juvenile Stonechat! We did have a very nice adult male to compare it with. It hadn’t even started its post-breeding moult yet, and this one was well into its post-fledging moult cycle.

The Mipit triangle was a complete failure today: no birds in it at all. Ironically, as we were sitting at the ringing station, after another no bird round, I noticed two birds settle onto the wooden fence of the pen opposite: Meadow Pipits! Frustrating, but also comical.

Anyway, as mentioned, we started taking down at 11:15, processed the last three birds, and were packed away and off site by 12:15, very happy with a small, but perfectly formed, catch.

With just Ellie and myself available for today’s session I decided not to set too many nets, limiting it to just seven. I arrived a bit early, at 6:15, and was greeted by this little individual. It actually hopped onto one of my walking boots as I was preparing to put them on.

Ellie arrived at the main carpark at the agreed time of 6:30 and I introduced her to our companion straight away. It stayed around us all session, rarely moving more than a couple of feet away from the ringing table. Ironically, we never got to put a ring on it. We set the nets along the first stage of the main ride:

If there had been more bodies available we would have run rides along the cross path above ride 3 and would probably had a bigger haul but we were very satisfied with what we got. We set the nets, leaving them closed until we had put up the last and then opening them as we walked back to the ringing station, only to find our first bird of the morning already in the ringing station end of ride 1. This is our twenty-first new Marsh Tit of the year. I have mentioned before that it is looking like being a good year, possibly matching the 27 of 2019 or even the 28 0f 2017. That is looking even more possible now, as we actually caught and ringed another two juvenile Marsh Tits during the rest of the session: taking us to 21 for the year to date. It is already our fourth best catch for any complete year, 22 in 2020 being the third best. With 60% of our Marsh Tit ringing catches taking place in the second half of the year things are looking positive.

Like many recent catches, as one would expect, the bulk of the catch were juveniles. Saturday’s catch at Red Lodge was all juveniles, today all birds ringed were juveniles, but this time we did have two adults: a retrapped Treecreeper and Blackbird. The Blackbird was a particularly interesting bird: LJ52371 was ringed as an adult in June 2018. By my reckoning that bird is at least eight years old. It would need to live double that to match the longevity record but it is the oldest that I can find in our records.

Overall, we had a very pleasant morning, with an excellent variety of birds. The largest part of the catch was juvenile Goldcrest:

One thing that I noticed, the Marsh Tits excepted, was the absence of the commoner titmice in the catch (we had caught a Long-tailed Tit but, as we all know, they are not titmice, not even closely related). I voiced this to Ellie, who was, at that time, watching a few titmice in the trees around the ringing station. I really should have known better: next round Blue Tit, Great Tit and Coal Tit! Bitey, bitey!

The total catch was: Treecreeper 1(1); Blue Tit 2; Great Tit 1; Coal Tit 1; Marsh Tit 3; Long-tailed Tit 1; Wren 3; Robin 6; Blackbird (1); Blackcap 5; Willow Warbler 1; Goldcrest 7. Totals: 31 juvenile birds ringed from 11 species and 2 birds retrapped from 2 species, making 33 birds processed from 12 species.

One of the things that I find interesting at this time of year is just how tatty the heads of juvenile male Blackcaps look as they moult their cap:

So, from a birding perspective it was very satisfying. From another perspective it was stunning:

This was flying around at the top of the ride and posed nicely for photos. Naturally, my camera and macro lens were back at the car, so I grabbed this shot on my phone. It is a first for me, and takes my UK moth list to 501 species and my Wiltshire moth list to 467 species. Soon after, I had fabulous views of a male Emperor Dragonfly: so blue, absolutely stunning. Unfortunately, no chance of a photo!

We started packing away at 11:10, taking down ride 3 first, as it had only produced one bird, and then ride 2 and ride 1 in that order, only ride 1 did insist on catching another bird every time we turned around to go and take it down. In the end we had to close the net to stop any more birds dropping in so we could actually get away for some lunch! We finally got away at about 12:15, very happy with our morning’s work.

I had originally planned to try out a new farmland site this morning but the weather forecast was for the breeze to be coming from the wrong direction, so I decided to change to Blakehill Farm where the net rides would be protected from wind from that direction. David and I arrived on site at 6:30 and unloaded the equipment. Unfortunately, as we started towards the first net ride the breeze got up – from the opposite direction to that forecast, potentially blowing the nets into the hedges, so I decided to head elsewhere to a woodland site. The nearest was Red Lodge. Ironically, that was the originally scheduled site for today until I decided I wanted to try somewhere new and more open. As we were leaving Blakehill a very obliging Merlin took off from a fence post to give nice views as it flew off.

We were late setting up and didn’t have the nets open until about 8:15. The first birds caught were three juvenile Blue Tits at 8:45. That was followed by a nice group of seven at 9:00, which included another Great Spotted Woodpecker. Unlike the recent catches, this was an adult female. It also happens to be our eleventh of the year ringed so far. To put that into perspective, we ringed a total of 10 in 2024 and only four in 2023. In fact, you have to go back to 2017 to find a better catch across the whole year! Funnily enough, that was 17 birds: be nice to end up on 25 this year!

Our next round that offered up any birds was at 9:45, with nine. This included another two Marsh Tits, both juveniles. After a barren month for the species in July, it was nice to get the catch back on track. These are our seventeenth and eighteenth of the year ringed, and our sixth and seventh juveniles.

Unfortunately, we then didn’t catch another bird for 90 minutes! What was happening though was that, in the opposite direction from where were we had set out nets, there were birds galore going backwards and forwards across the path. Some were hawking insects and, at one point, a Goshawk shot through the picture. We decided to do a last couple of rounds at 11:10 and 11:30. Those did produce another eight birds so, despite the gap, we did end up with a reasonable total after a very messy start.

All of the birds, except for the Great Spotted Woodpecker, were juveniles and there were no retrapped birds. The list was: Great Spotted Woodpecker 1; Blue Tit 5; Great Tit 4; Marsh Tit 2; Long-tailed Tit 5; Wren 1; Dunnock 1; Robin 3; Chiffchaff 2; Willow Warbler 1; Goldcrest 2. Totals: 27 birds ringed / processed from 11 species.

The highlight of the session was our first (at last) juvenile Willow Warbler of the year.

We closed the nets as we extracted the last birds of the session, processed our last five birds, and then took down and packed away: leaving site at just after 12:20.

PS I played Merlin a Whinchat mp3 and it identified it as a Skylark! Not quite as bad, I suppose, as playing it a female Cuckoo and having Merlin identify it as a Whimbrel!

A quite phenomenal July for the Group and for Jonny in particular. He processed over 1,000 birds this month: 861 adults ringed, 54 pulli ringed and 129 retrapped. Oh to be young, fit and agile! The rest of us managed a paltry 254 between us! There are excuses: in the north we have actually had a lot of high wind and rain and some very poor catches. I think the woodlands have been deserted as my catches in there have all been in the low tens, and the open areas are just too prone to the winds, so I haven’t been able to run sessions there. Anyway, these are the results for our best ever July, and our fourth best month ever.

The average catch sizes were much bigger than last year, despite the fact that my catches averaged only 22.8 per session, whilst Jonny’s sessions averaged in at just under 73.

There was a decent increase in the number of species, but there were some not caught this year that were last, as follows:

New this July: Green Woodpecker, Little Owl, Moorhen, Nuthatch, Spotted Flycatcher, Swift and Woodpigeon. Missing compared to last July: Buzzard, Coal Tit and Yellow Wagtail. Of those, the Buzzard was ringed as a pullus at one of Jonny’s farmland sites, the Yellow Wagtail was ringed at Brown’s Farm near Marlborough and the Coal Tit at Green Lane Wood WWT Nature Reserve.

The highlights have to be the Lapwing, Little Owl, Moorhen and Swifts. The Lapwing chicks continue to add to the Wiltshire & Swindon Biological Records Centre (okay, Jonny, Aurora and Jackson’s) Peewit Project. This takes the total for this year to 38 Lapwing chicks ringed and two subsequently recaptured, with Ian catching and ringing one on Salisbury Plain.

The Little Owl was caught by Jonny at one of his Sutton Benger farmland sites. Interestingly, this is only the second ever Little Owl the group has caught: the first being in January of this year, by Andy at one of his new sites near the Imber Ranges.

Not the only July ringed Little Owl for the group: Miranda got to ring her first, coming out with me on one of my Salisbury Plain sessions:

I love how annoyed this bird looks: I don’t think there is another species that can look this cross! When heading off to Salisbury Plain to check on the raptors we all meet up at Westdown Camp. This summer there has been a noticeably decent sized flock of Swifts in and around the camp. The army have provided a large number of nest boxes at the camp. This year Ian, Andy and our friend, the wonderfully named Jack Daw, have been monitoring the nests this year and managed to ring nine pulli.

It was a good month for woodpeckers: four juvenile Great Spotted Woodpeckers ringed and an adult retrapped plus two juvenile Green Woodpeckers, one at Lower Moor Farm, the other at the Imber Ranges.

Amongst the improved numbers in the catch the most pleasing for me was Lesser Whitethroat: eleven in July last year, twenty one ringed and two retrapped this July. That included my first Lesser Whitethroat at Lower Moor Farm since August 2020!

Jonny’s Tree Sparrow monitoring continues to amplify, with adults and pulli caught and ringed and, this time, a good number of birds retrapped.

Rumour has it that the autumn migration is already underway, so our two busiest months could be even busier than normal.