Ringing In The Braydon Forest & Beyond

Given the weather forecast for last week, it was quite remarkable that I managed to fit in all three scheduled sessions, the last by moving Saturday’s session to Sunday, the others simply because the weather was better than originally forecast.

Wednesday, 12th December saw my monthly Help4Heroes session at Tedworth House go ahead.  There were two issues that restricted the catch: none of the feeding stations had been stocked up in advance and a couple of workmen were doing ground works in front of two of my net rides. The latter were not expected to have been there, as they were expected to have completed their tasks by the Tuesday.  The list for the morning was: Blue Tit 5(4); Great Tit 4(1); Wren 1; Dunnock (1); Robin (1); Blackbird 1; Chaffinch 2; Goldfinch 3. Totals: 16 birds ringed from 6 species; 7 birds recaptured from 4 species, making 23 birds processed from 8 species.

The catch could have been better: a Redwing managed to extract itself from the net before I could get to it and a large flock of Lesser Redpoll flew through the area but, unfortunately, they were too busy foraging in the canopy to come down to the nets. Later in the winter, as the canopy feed becomes depleted, I am sure that they will drop down and we will catch a few.

Thursday, 13th December was a very different session to most. It took place at Lower Moor Farm and I was helped for the session by Ellie Jones, one of my senior trainees and the Wiltshire Wildlife Trust’s northern reserves manager, which includes this site.  We were joined for the morning by a team from BBC’s Countryfile programme, which included presenter Matt Baker.  They were making a film about the Wildlife Trust’s Care Farm on the site. This is a local authority funded scheme to enable vulnerable, disadvantaged and disabled young people to explore nature in a safe and relaxed educational environment.  The youngsters and staff are regular visitors to my ringing sessions, and I like to get them to get close to the birds and try to teach them some simple identification tips for ageing and sexing species.  For this session we were joined by just one of them, who was the focus of the session.

To ensure we had some birds for filming I had set up a couple of peanut and seed feeders two weeks ago and kept them topped up on a weekly basis.  However, to make sure we weren’t inundated with birds, Ellie and I only set two nets.  Prior to Dan’s arrival (the youngster to be filmed), the camera and sound crew filmed me extracting some birds from the net.  You don’t realise your particular foibles until a disinterested third party is with you. They asked me to stop talking to the birds whilst I was extracting them, as it would not transfer well to the television.  They filmed our activity for over 2 hours.  Ellie kept the nets clear whilst I carried out the ringing activities.  Dan was taught how to safely hold and release a number of birds from half-a-dozen species. He was also shown how to age and sex Great Tits and age Blue Tits and was quizzed by Matt Baker on what he had learned.  He thoroughly enjoyed the session. With that much filmed there might be a few minutes of bird ringing on the show to be aired on the 20th January 2019. We shut the nets once the filming stopped.

The list for the morning was: Blue Tit 2(4); Great Tit 4(4); Wren (1); Dunnock 1(4); Robin (2); Blackbird (1); Chaffinch 2. Totals: 9 birds ringed from 4 species; 16 birds recaptured from 6 species, making 25 birds processed from 7 species.

Sunday, 16th December was at Ravensroost Woods. I was joined by Jonny Cooper and also by Emmeline Williams from the Wildlife Trust’s well-being team.  We set up a single net ride of 5 nets, with 84 metres of net.  As expected at this time of year, the catch was dominated by titmice: Great Spotted Woodpecker (1); Nuthatch 1(2); Blue Tit 27(19); Great Tit 7(3); Coal Tit 8(3); Marsh Tit 1(3); Wren 1; Dunnock (3); Robin 1(1); Goldcrest 1; Chaffinch 2(1).  Totals: 49 birds ringed from 9 species; 36 birds recaptured from 9 species, making 85 birds processed from 11 species.

The highlight of the catch was our seventeenth Marsh Tit of the year: we still have a way to go to catch up with the 29 captured last year but it is still a strong showing and better than most years for the species in the Braydon Forest.  I manage a licensed colour ringing scheme for Marsh Tits caught in the Forest in the hope that I will get reported sightings back. If you do see any please leave a comment on the blog page with date, place and colours.  I will send a response with details of when and where the bird was ringed and any subsequent sightings.

The weather forecast wasn’t particularly encouraging for today, with the potential for rain being estimated in the high teens percentages and strong winds forecast.  However, as the wind was forecast to come from the west and we ring right in the heart of Webb’s Wood, we thought we should be able to get a bit of a session in, provided the rain held off.  I was joined for the session by Jonny, Steph and Lillie.

On Thursday I had set up a couple of bird feeders and, although I didn’t expect them to play much of a part on Saturday, whilst setting them up I had noticed a flock of 40 or so Redwing in the vicinity, which would make a good target for our session.

We had the nets open for 8:00 and started catching straight away.  I was right about the feeders: we only caught 6 of the birds in the nets set close by. At the next session I have no doubt the vast majority of the catch will come from there.  The net setup is shown on the photo below. The circle shows the position of the feeding station:

This photo shows the position of the ringing area within the wood:

I was right about the Redwing: we caught 22 of them: exactly half of the catch. So far this winter it looks like being our best ever for Redwing, with 130 to date in our sites in the north of the county, and we haven’t had any hard weather yet.  The total catch was: Great Spotted Woodpecker 1; Nuthatch 1; Blue Tit 8(1); Great Tit 1(2); Coal Tit 2; Wren 1; Robin 1; Redwing 22; Blackbird 1; Goldcrest 2(1).  Totals: 40 birds ringed from 10 species; 4 birds recaptured from 3 species, making 44 birds processed from 10 species.

At about 10:15 the wind began to get up and, as the nets were getting blown out by the wind, we shut them and took down.  It was a good decision: just as we finished packing the equipment away in the car, the rain came.  We left site at 11:00.

With foul weather to end November, unfortunately the start of December is not looking too clever either.  Having been unable to get out since a week ago Sunday, and with rain forecast for the rest of the week, and today being scheduled to be flat calm and dry, I took advantage of being my own boss to have a ringing session this morning.  Unfortunately, the rest of the crew having jobs and other responsibilities, it was going to be me on my own.  I decided on Blakehill Farm, as an opportunity to catch a few Redwing. They roost in the trees on edge of the Chelworth Industrial Estate and feed in the hedgerows on the perimeter track and out on the central plateau.

I didn’t plan to set too many nets, and in the event I didn’t set as many as I intended because, having set up the second net set, the Redwing started arriving regularly and in number.  Redwing continued to be caught throughout the morning, with the last being extracted at 11:30.  Prior to today, the largest catch of Redwing the West Wilts Ringing Group has had was 39 at Blakehill in November 2016. Today eclipsed that, with a total haul of 70.

Whilst the session was dominated by the Redwing, I caught a number of other species typical of Blakehill’s hedgerows and plateau.  Linnet numbers seem to have fallen away recently, so to catch a pair this morning was a pleasant bonus:

As well as the Redwing, I caught the following: Great Tit 1; Dunnock 1; Meadow Pipit 1; Robin 2; Blackbird 6; Goldfinch 1; Linnet 2; Reed Bunting 1.   A total of 85 birds ringed from 9 species.

 

With Saturday being a miserable, drizzly day Jonny and I pushed back the session to Sunday.  The forecast was for it to be a drier day but windy.   My usual ringing site at Lower Moor farm would have been too exposed to a north-easterly wind, so we moved to the area by the Visitor Centre and the Children’s Education Area.

When we set the nets I thought that the three net sets in the Children’s Education Area would provide the major part of the catch.  In fact, the single net set adjacent to the road way produced 70 of the 79 birds caught.

The first round was the largest, with a good number of Redwing and a sizeable tit flock caught in the road nets.  Thereafter, it was steady influx of birds leading to a catch comprising: Blue Tit 14(5); Great Tit 7(3); Long-tailed Tit (4); Wren 7(1); Dunnock 5; Robin 4(1); Redwing 16; Song Thrush 1; Blackbird 1; Goldcrest 1; Chaffinch 1; Goldfinch 5; Bullfinch 3. Totals: 65 birds ringed from 12 species, 14 birds recaptured from 5 species, making 79 birds processed from 13 species.

As is usual for this time of year, we set several lures. two for Redwing, and one each for Lesser Redpoll and Chaffinch. The Redwing lure worked beautifully in the road net, where all 16 were caught, the others failed miserably.  What they did do was create work for me: as I spent the entire session accosting birders as they arrived in the car park, to warn them not to be fooled by the lures.  As a result, I also spent quite a lot of time doing impromptu ringing demonstrations to interested parties.  This is something I enjoy doing, but I also think it is important to engage people in the process, so they understand why we do it and that the birds are not compromised by it.   Jonny having left early, due to a prior commitment, coupled with ensuring the nets were cleared regularly, kept me pretty busy for the rest of the session.

My session highlight was catching the Song Thrush: my record sheets for the ring size CC prior to this catch showed nothing but Redwing for the last 50 captures. I expect to see a couple of hundred more Redwing over the course of the winter but will hopefully be interspersed with a good number of Song Thrush.  We have a good sized population of these declining birds in north Wiltshire, and I regularly ring 30 to 40 per year, since an all time low of just 4 in 2013.

Authored by Jonny Cooper.

Meadow Farm is a site incorporating hedgerows, woodland, grassland and the river Avon near to Sutton Benger in Wiltshire.  When starting to ring at a site one of the main things that takes time is getting an idea of the best places to put nets and what works for the site.  Over the summer and autumn I have been getting out to Meadow Farm as often as I can, to try out new ideas for net rides etc. This has led to catches settling at a pretty regular 50 birds per session, with interesting birds, like Kingfisher and Jackdaw being caught, as well as good numbers of migrant birds on autumn passage.

Moving into winter I have stared to regularly fill up a few feeders on the site, to try and attract in some of the wintering flocks of birds that frequent the wet woodland and fields adjacent to the ringing area. So, when I turned up to do a session on Friday I was reasonably confident of a good catch.

I set most of the nets the evening before and was on site before sunrise to try to catch a few Redwing coming out of roost. The first round at 7:00 provided 8 of these lovely thrushes. Dawn broke to a still and overcast day, perfect ringing conditions. Things really started to kick off for the next round with 37 birds extracted and processed, this busy theme continued for the rest of the morning. It seemed every round was producing nets full of birds.

The list for the morning was: Great Spotted Woodpecker 1, Blue Tit 26(11), Great Tit 9(13), Long-tailed Tit 6(1), Wren 4(2), Dunnock (1), Robin (1), Redwing 9, Blackbird 2, Chaffinch 2, Goldfinch 45, Greenfinch 6, Yellowhammer 1. A total of 111 birds ringed from 11 species and 29 re-traps from 6 species, making 140 birds processed from 13 species.

45 Goldfinches is a particularly good catch, being the most abundant species for the session. It seems Blue Tits can be outdone, even at feeders. The Yellowhammer was the second for the site, the first being a female back in June. The Redwing were good to catch and observing birds moving around the site has given me some more ideas for places to try and set nets to catch more of these winter visitors. Altogether an incredible session that exceeded any expectations I had.

This session was a rearrangement of one of our regular ringing demonstrations for the Swindon Wildlife Group, which had to be postponed from September because of bad weather. It was rescheduled for this morning at Blakehill Farm, just outside Cricklade. Because it is a big, wide open airfield, and we knew it would be breezy, we had to choose the most sheltered part of the site to set the nets: by the farm buildings and visitor centre. I was helped out by Ellie and Annie for the session. When we got to the site there was still rain in the air, despite a forecast which showed the day would be bright and sunny.  Fortunately, by the time we had set the nets the moisture had cleared, although the sun did not arrive until about 10:00.

Wiltshire Wildlife Trust have implemented a new policy on bird ringing, which says that we can have a maximum of 8 visitors to each demonstrator. As I knew we would be short-handed for this session, the number of visitors was restricted to 18.

Because of the team size we only set three short net rides. It worked pretty well, with 32 birds from 10 species processed over the two hours of the demonstration. The catch for the session was: Blue Tit 2(1); Great Tit 2; Wren 2; Dunnock (1); Robin 1(1); Redwing 6; Blackbird 1; Goldcrest 1; Goldfinch 5; House Sparrow 9.

However, with a fairly steady easterly breeze there was a massive movement of Fieldfare and Redwing, with a few Starling for good measure going over all morning. It was virtually constant. We caught the six Redwing, which was good for the visitors to see, but when this wind dies down we will be moving to the other side of Blakehill, which is our usual Redwing roost site, and hope that some of this massive flyover will have decided the fields and hedgerows are to their liking: as the hedges are full of sloes and haws.

The visitors thoroughly enjoyed the session and two of the youngsters have expressed an interest in taking up ringing. Funnily enough, all of my trainees have come from this route. Not one of the many that have been referred to me by the BTO has made the transition from interest to activity. Only 2 have ever turned up for a taster session. That’s not to criticise the BTO, but to question why some people even make the first step if they don’t plan to do anything about it when it is offered to them on a plate.

I have to thank Annie and Ellie for their help.  At ringing demonstrations their role is almost exclusively to help set up and take down, and to check on and empty the nets. They get very little opportunity to actually ring birds, as I do the demonstrating. this is the reversal of our usual sessions.  Thanks also to Robin Griffiths for volunteering to be my scribe for the morning. He did an excellent job of it.

 

With the forecast being for it being windy with the chance of the odd shower we headed for the relatively sheltered confines of Ravensroost Wood.  It can be gusting up to more than 30 mph outside the wood without it impacting on our net rides.   Our feeding station area has just been coppiced, so the bird table is sitting out in a big clear space and pretty useless for bird catching. Nevertheless, we put a triangle of nets around it, just in case. It only caught a couple of birds so the table will be moved before the next session.  I had set up a couple of peanut feeders in the ride opposite, and they did their job.

I was joined by Ellie, Jonny and Steph for the session.  Early on we set lures for Redwing and Lesser Redpoll. There are often good numbers of them in and around the wood. Today we only caught the one Redwing but we did catch our first two Lesser Redpoll of the year:

The weather was better than forecast between 6:30 and 11:00 but almost on the stroke of 11:00 the blue sky blackened and the heavens opened.  We got soaked but, fortunately, no birds were in the nets at the time and we got them closed and taken down in record time.

It was a reasonable catch under the circumstances: Nuthatch (2); Blue Tit 9(4); Great Tit 2(3); Coal Tit 3(3); Marsh Tit (1); Long-tailed Tit 4(1); Wren 1(1);  Robin (1); Redwing 1; Blackbird 1; Goldcrest 3; Chaffinch 1; Lesser Redpoll 2.  Totals: 27 birds ringed from 10 species; 16 birds recaptured from 8 species, making 43 birds processed from 13 species.

This session was moved from a wet and windy Wednesday to a less wet and less windy Thursday.  Red Lodge is one of those places where, in my mind, we get small catches and, in reality, we get excellent catches.  Thursday was no exception.  Unfortunately, our bird feeding station at Red Lodge has frequently been vandalised over the last couple of year, culminating with the complete disappearance of the bird table over the summer.  It is hard to credit the mentality of someone doing this.  I can (just about) understand someone stealing the bird feeders but the consistent and persistent efforts to prevent the supplementary feeding of the local bird population during the winter months just beggars belief. Rant over!

On Tuesday afternoon I set up some small seed and peanut feeders in out of the way locations, in the hope that they will survive the winter. Wednesday was as wet as forecast.  At 6:00 Thursday morning the rain had just stopped, the cloud cover was reasonably broken and it looked positive.   Jonny and I set up just four nets (2 x 18m; 1 x 12m and 1 x 9m) and put on lures for Marsh Tit and Redwing.  The former worked.   We took 18 birds out of the net on the first round and, as we were processing them, had to move the ringing station into the back of the car, as a fairly heavy shower passed over.  Next round delivered another 22 birds, mainly Long-tailed Tits, and another brief shower whilst we were processing them.  Fortunately, the showers passed over while the nets were empty, so we had no wet birds to handle.  It was also the end of the rain for the morning.

As usual during these sessions, we caught mainly Blue Tits but, I am pleased to say, the second largest number ringed was 17 Long-tailed Tits.  This is the largest number ringed in a session since we did 18 at Blakehill Farm on the 25th October 2015.  Numbers have definitely slumped since then, not getting into double figures ringed and recaptured in the Braydon Forest since a catch in Ravensroost on 27th October 2017 but, generally, for three years we have caught just twos and threes if any at all.

The list for the day was: Treecreeper 3; Blue Tit 22 (12); Great Tit 3(7); Coal Tit 3(1); Marsh Tit (3); Long-tailed Tit 17; Wren (1); Dunnock 1; Goldcrest 1; Chaffinch 2.  Totals: 52 ringed from 8 species; 24 birds recaptured from 5 species, making 76 birds processed from 10 species.

Of the three Marsh Tits recaptured one, D983472,  was originally ringed in August 2014, so it is double the typical lifespan of this species, but way off the 11 years and 3 months of the oldest known individual.

Soon after the second rain shower, a flock of some 50 or so Lesser Redpoll flew in, settled in the tops of the trees around our feeding station, before flying on further into the wood.  We didn’t catch any but this was an exciting sighting.  Until the wood was thinned in 2015 / 2016 we rarely saw or caught finches in this wood.  Even the commonest of finches, Chaffinch, was only caught on two separate occasions prior to 2016, once each in 2013 and 2014, but are now caught regularly.  Lesser Redpoll have been even more scarce, with 7 caught in one memorable session in December 2016 and just one caught in November 2017.  Hopefully we will be able to catch a few this winter.

The catch had died down by 10:30, and the wind was getting stronger and blowing the nets, so we had an early end to, what was a very satisfactory, session.

With winds forecast to be gusting to over 30 mph in Wiltshire today, I had to abandon the planned visit to Brown’s Farm.  It is far too exposed, sitting atop the hills south of Marlborough. Instead, Annie Hatt and I headed to one of the more thickly wooded parts of Somerford Common.  I put up a couple of peanut feeders and put seed onto the bird table on Friday morning, to ensure that we would have a reasonable catch.

It is Annie’s first trip out for quite a while, due to pressure of work, so I decided to keep the number of nets low and easily manageable.  We had 3 x 18m nets down the main path and 1 x 12m parallel to the path and behind the feeders.  The aim being to catch birds coming in and out of the feeding station.  The strategy worked: the nets were untroubled by the wind, we had a good catch of birds and they came in a constant and manageable flow.

We know that our catches are going to be dominated by Blue Tits under these circumstances but, with a new BTO-backed study being run on this species, there is plenty of data available.

The list for the day was: Nuthatch 1; Treecreeper 2; Blue Tit 10(6); Great Tit 4(1); Coal Tit 7 (4); Marsh Tit 1; Long-tailed Tit (1); Wren 1; Robin 1; Blackbird 2; Goldcrest 10; Chaffinch 1.  Totals:  40 birds ringed from 11 species; 12 birds recaptured from 4 species, making 52 birds processed from 12 species.

Amongst the decent haul of Coal Tits was D664806, which was a juvenile ringed in October 2013. It has been caught on four other occasions, including this.  According to BTO Bird Facts, the typical lifespan is 2 years, the oldest is 9 years and just under 3 months, so it is doing well, but has a few years to go before threatening the record.   We ringed our thirteenth Marsh Tit of 2018: we need another 11 in two months to match the excellent total of last year.

Soon after we had emptied the nets from the first round and were sat processing the catch, we had a female Sparrowhawk fly along the length of the net ride. It is a wonderful sight, watching this magnificent bird of prey flying directly towards you.  Better than that, no more than 10m away from us, it veered up and into a tree adjacent to the ringing station and sat there, had a good look at us, before flying off.

We closed the nets at 12:00 and spent the next hour removing leaves from the nets as we packed away: it is an occupational hazard of ringing att his time of year.

 

 

We were asked to do a session for the Wildlife Trust’s Wellbeing team, so we moved our scheduled session from Wednesday to Thursday: something we are always happy to do.  I had set up a feeding station on Tuesday, hoping that it would ensure we had a few birds for the session.   The birds had clearly found the feeders, as the peanuts and seed mix had been reduced by one third.

As luck would have it, Wednesday was dry and sunny, Thursday was overcast and showery.  Andrew Bray and I arrived at 6:30 and set the nets.  We only set nets down the central glade, as there was just the two of us.  Immediately, we had opened them we had to shut them, as it started to rain.  We were able to open them just after 8:00 and got a good first round of 18 birds in.  The rain started again at 8:30, so we closed the nets again, able to open them at 9:15.  It seemed that as soon as we opened them birds started flying in.  The rest of the morning remained dry – apart from the water continually dripping off the trees every time there was a breath of wind.

The list for the day was: Great Spotted Woodpecker (1); Nuthatch 1(3); Treecreeper 2; Blue Tit 14(19); Great Tit 2(7); Coal Tit 4(2); Marsh Tit (2); Long-tailed Tit 2(2); Wren 1(2); Goldcrest (2).  Totals: 26 ringed from 7 species; 40 birds recaptured from 9 species, making 66 birds processed from 10 species.

We caught a Great Tit, which was one of the first I ringed after getting my C-permit, D056678. This was ringed as an adult, just up the road in a private site on Wood Lane, in October 2012, so it is at least 7 years old. Typical lifespan of Great Tits is 3 years, but the oldest known, from ringing, is a massive 13 years 11 months and 5 days.

Any session where we catch four Nuthatches is a good session: three recaptures and one new bird.  Add in a couple of recaptured Marsh Tits and Goldcrests plus two new Treecreepers and it becomes a very good session.

The Wellbeing group arrived at just before 10:00, and we were able to show them a wide range of different birds.  Jo Woodhams and Chelsie Phillips, valuable members of the Wellbeing Team, had organised the group and persuaded them to get to site an hour earlier than they would normally start.  It was a diverse group of varying ages.  One thing they all had in common was a real interest in the birds we showed them.  Several were knowledgeable, but this was the first time they had been able to see them up close, and they were delighted.