Ringing In The Braydon Forest & Beyond

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.

I was joined this morning by Ellie and Sarah. Sarah’s first outing for a while but she picked up from where she left off: as competent as ever. Ellie just keeps improving. We met at 6:30 and set the same nets as last time: once more netting the hill incline. There is a superb collection of blackberries along the ride and I am hopeful that they will prove suitably attractive during the autumn. The nets were open by 7:30 and we gave them 20 minutes to allow for the first catch to arrive.

Looking down the slope, we could see it was already quite busy and, with five birds taken from the lower nets and fourteen from the slope, we were highly enthused for a big catch. Hopes are only raised to be cruelly dashed, and so it proved as the next round produced just two birds. It then went 2,0,0, 1, 1, 0, 3, 3, 2, ending up on 31 birds by the end of the session at 11:30.

It would be churlish to complain too much. With some of my catches recently I would have been satisfied with that number, but with that excellent start I had thought we would be on to a 50+ haul.

The catch for the session was: Great Spotted Woodpecker 1; Blue Tit 2; Great Tit 5(1); Long-tailed Tit 1; Wren 2; Dunnock 1; Robin 2(1); Blackcap 10; Garden Warbler (1); Chiffchaff 3; Goldcrest 1. Totals: 28 birds ringed from 10 species and 3 birds retrapped from 3 species, making 31 birds processed from 11 species. All birds processed, except the retrapped Garden Warbler, were juveniles.

It was a toss up as to which was our favourite bird of the session. The Great Spotted Woodpecker was a very juvenile bird.

However, the cutest had to be the rather tatty juvenile Goldcrest:

As you can see from this photo, it was just beginning to grow its crest. At first we thought female, but a little blow on the top showed the tiniest splash of orange:

Life isn’t easy being a bird, particularly for youngsters, and it doesn’t help when you are carrying a host of parasites:

Both sides of its head were equally badly infested. Underneath the ticks you can see were others hidden by the bigger ones. There had to be well over 100 ticks on this bird’s head. Some ringers are opposed to tick removal: “interfering with nature”. The BTO are happy either way, provided that you are competent to remove them. I spent quite a long time cleaning off the ticks from this bird. Am I competent? Not a single bleed was left after removal: I think that is competence. It is highly unlikely that I got them all, but the burden has been much reduced.

Footnote: I have just been advised by the BTO that some interfering individual, who, it seems, would have been happy to see this Great Tit suffer this tick infestation, and possibly die from potential infections, has contacted them and they have advised me that they have added another layer of bureaucracy into the ringing scheme. To quote their new position: “While removal of ticks for the purpose of enhancing bird welfare does not require a Home Office licence under ASPA (Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986), there is a risk to the bird if mouthparts are left in situ, and artificially improving the health of the bird compromises the monitoring remit of ringing activities. Ringers should therefore not attempt to remove ticks from birds caught unless collecting them for a specific study, which would require an ASPA licence from the Home Office as it wouldn’t be considered as for welfare reasons.”

I did ask for when this became a part of the rule book but, instead of getting an answer, I was shown a statement made back in 2012, which talks about being “trained” to do it, so you don’t leave mouthparts embedded in the host.

As someone who started their working career in stock management on a number of farms back in 1974, if your animals are picking up ticks I was trained to remove them. Apparently, “trained” is now being interpreted as having been trained as a vet! Perhaps the ringing scheme management no longer thinks that general animal welfare, outside of our ringing activities, is any longer a priority. I don’t agree but I won’t mention it in public any more.

We closed the nets at 11:30 and took down, packed away and off site just after 12:30. If the birds had been spread over the session we would have been happier than we were, but it was still an enjoyable session.

I was helped this morning by Ellie. This morning’s session was mainly about checking up on whether any Barn Owls were taking advantage of the boxes emptied after the Jackdaws had fledged. With the late start to the breeding season I was hoping that they might have chosen to do so. Unfortunately, not so, so far.

We started off at Clattinger Farm, meeting at 8:30 and heading off in my car. One of the boxes at Upper Waterhay had roosting Stock Doves and nesting material but no sign of actual breeding. The others remained as empty as they were after we cleaned them out. Two of the farms have seen Barn Owls flying around the fields, so there is still hope.

We started off at Clattinger Farm to check on Swallows. I have definitely got my timings wrong this year. Lack of the car was my excuse for missing the first broods. Incompetence has seen me miss most of the second broods. Definitely hoping that I get it right for any third broods. As the Wildlife Trust staff weren’t about this morning, we couldn’t get into the stables as they are kept locked, but we could get into the adjoining sheds. Pleased to find one Swallow nest with three warm eggs and parents flying around in shed 5. We will have a look at the others on Friday morning when Ellie P, of the Wildlife Trust, is about. There was plenty of adult activity, so hopeful we might get some results.

Our first Barn Owl box checked is a new one on site at Clattinger. This was the first time I have checked this box. A Stock Dove flew out as we approached and I was pleased to find two warm eggs in the box. We will give it another three weeks and have another look.

From there we headed over to Upper Waterhay to check their Barn Owl boxes and see whether there were any Swallows on eggs or ready for ringing. As I have already said, the boxes showed no signs of Barn Owl activity. Most of the Swallow nests were empty, but with plenty of adult activity, so I am pretty sure that a third brood is on the way. We will check back in a few weeks. However, one of the nests did contain four youngsters, so Ellie got to ring her first Swallow pulli. I say pulli because they were all nicely tucked up in the nest and showed no signs of trying to fly away, but their wing feathers were pretty near full grown, so they won’t be there much longer: so we finally got our timing right!

From there we checked out one more box before arriving at Drill Farm. When I last checked this box, on the 10th of this month, there were three very small chicks and two eggs. Because there were four eggs there on the first visit, 13th June, I felt that there would be the chance that the chicks would be big enough to ring. This time there was one somewhat bigger and two somewhat smaller chicks. The two unhatched eggs had disappeared. What was encouraging about this box was that it had a well-stocked larder of wood mice along with the chicks.

We went from there to check on our boxes at Home Farm Barn, which was empty. Then to Somerford Farm, where the barn based box had a pair of Stock Doves roosting. There was no sign of nesting though. The other two boxes were empty.

With Barn Owls in the Braydon Forest, this year we have ringed 12 young from five boxes, last year we ringed 31 young from 9 boxes. It is not hard to see that things have been a lot more difficult for them this year than last. We will see how it ends up in October when I clean out the boxes for the winter period.

With so few Barn Owls processed on Salisbury Plain so far this year we set out hopeful but not confident. The boxes we were checking today had previously been noted to have at least a pair of adults, a couple had eggs, and we were hoping that they might produce results.

The first good thing that happened was a good sized flock of Swifts flying around the camp. They have been nesting there in a good number of boxes installed by the Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO). My friends, Ian, Andy and Jack, have been monitoring and ringing some of the chicks, and Ian confirmed that the last batch he ringed, a week ago, were close to fledging. It looks very much like it has been a successful year for them at this site.

The team today was Dick, Jon, Justine and me. We set off at 8:30 as usual and headed off for our checks. The plan was twofold, besides the Barn Owl checks we had three Kestrel boxes that needed assessment for maintenance and replacement. In the end, we left one box where it was in an Ash tree. Primarily because although, like so many Ash trees in the UK, the tree is dying from the Chalara die-back disease, none of the others in the location were actually any better. Another was moved from a very exposed position to a sheltered position on the edge of a copse. For the third we had to remove an old and dilapidated box and replace it with a nice new, all mod-cons Kestrel box. (For “we” read “Jon”, he did all the hard work, the rest of us just had fun breaking up the old one so it could be safely disposed of.)

A des-res that any Kestrel will be proud to occupy!

The good thing about today was that we actually managed to get some Barn Owl chicks ringed. In fact, we also ringed a couple of adults, more of which anon.

Driving over the Plain to our various sites I could not believe how many hundreds of Linnet there were to be seen alongside the tracks, over the landscape. Given how their numbers have decreased on farmland, this just shows that we should be able to increase their numbers again, by subtle changes to farming methods. This land is farmed but not intensively. I am pretty confident that it is not regularly sprayed with pesticides and herbicides.

Approaching our first Barn Owl encounter, in a barn on Wilsford Hill, driving up the track was phenomenal. As previously mentioned, so many Linnets but, also, five Wheatear flying up the track in front of us, and them I noticed a couple of Stonechat also flying from bush to bush along the track. We got to the barn and, thanks to plugging the entrance / exit hole managed to catch two juveniles. At first we thought that they could be adults but, on checking the plumage, they were definitely juvenile. Apart from the freshness of the wings and tail, the heads retained quite a lot of fluffy juvenile feathers. It was clear that they had been out hunting: there was blood in the creases of the skin around the talons. They were also, clearly, a male and a female:

The absence or otherwise of spotting on the underside of the wing and sometimes on the side of the breast is diagnostic, although males may occasionally have the odd one or two, but not as many.

The next box that we checked that contained owls contained two adults. One of the adults was unringed, but the other was already ringed. This bird, a female, had been ringed with a size F ring. The BTO approve the use of both F and G rings for ringing Barn Owls, dependent upon the projected size of the bird. It is found that Barn Owls in the Cornwall and Devon and west Wales tend to be smaller than those elsewhere in the country so, as a general rule, in those areas they fit F-rings and in most other areas they use G-rings. Nearly every ringer involved in ringing Barn Owl in Wiltshire uses G-rings, because we are not in those extreme areas. You are supposed to decide on which ring to use based upon tarsus width, although finding the exact width data is difficult. However. it was clear that this F-ring was too small for this particular bird:

If you look at the leg with the ring on it you can see that the feathers have been rubbed away, especially when you compare it to the unringed leg. Also, this ring has been shaped into a capital D. This meant that the ring could move up and down the ring, hence the feather removal, but not rotate, causing rubbing that exacerbates the defeathering. We removed the offending ring and replaced it with properly fitted G-ring and have informed the BTO of what we did and why. This is the second incidence of this problem being found within the last few weeks. I also have photographic evidence of that as well. That we needed to change these rings will, almost certainly, be investigated by the BTO. Hopefully they will identify the root of the problem and get the individuals to change their methods. Apart from that, the bird was fine.

Unfortunately, both were in moult and with no sign of breeding. They probably won’t this year now.

At the next box we checked a male flew off as we approached but we did catch an adult female in the next box. She also was already ringed, not with one of our rings though. I have just heard back from the ringing team that did it, she was ringed near Collingbourne Kingston as a pullus in June 2019, it has travelled about 6 miles West-South-West away from its natal area.

And then to the highlight of the day: a brood of four fat and healthy Barn Owl chicks, looking well fed and growing nicely:

The final box we checked as ever, the male flew off as we approached, but the female stayed hunkered down on the nest, so Jon simply shut the box door again and we left her in peace. The fact that she stayed down and didn’t move is a strong sign that she is on eggs. Hopefully another check in a six weeks or so will prove fruitful.

All of the Kestrels seem to have now fledged and their breeding season is over. We found evidence that the adults are moulting, with feathers around the base of boxes, like these:

We finished about 14:30 and headed back to base. Just over the road was a lot of smoke: it seemed that a farmer out working his field has somehow managed to spark a fire in the stubble. To his credit, he got out of the tractor and managed to stamp it out. Long gone, I hope, are the days when stubble burning was an acceptable practice.

Anyway, a good session, some Barn Owls ringed, and numbers are slowly climbing for this year. I am out checking a few of my boxes up north tomorrow, and have at least one brood to ring and am hopeful I will find some more.