As forecast, it rained hard all morning so I went out feeding the farmland sites and adding new feeders provided by the Marlborough Downs Nature Improvement Area.
The rain was forecast to stop early afternoon and it did so I went to Moulden Hill Lake to try a Reed Bunting roost. I used to do the odd Reed Bunting roost effort here years ago and then numbers dropped to make it not worth doing. Clearing the rides didn’t take long and I set two nets, one playing Reed Bunting. I heard a Chiffchaff so I added a Chiffchaff call and caught three but again I heard an eastern Chiffchaff and once again failed to catch it. There were at least 5 Water Rails present so I tried the tape and I caught one.
Reed Bunting numbers weren’t high but 6 ringed and one retrapped that was ringed at Swindon STW on 19th October was reasonable. This is one of the few sites that puts me right in the public eye and you see the full spectrum of humankind at this location from responsible dog owners to those who allow their dogs to run amock totally out of control, all ages of kids and even horse riders. Thus, it ends up as a constant ringing demonstration but todays highlight was a family who had a little pug called... Dave!
This site is close to my house and is easy to operate so I will make sure that I ring it a bit more this year as I really liked this little three hour session.
Reed Bunting 6 (1), Chiffchaff 3, Blue Tit 2, Wren 2, Water Rail 1
