SALISBURY PLAIN (CENTRE)
While I'm visiting friends near Bergen, Norway for a weeks ringing (Barred Warbler the highlight so far) it was left to my Dad, Olly and Mike from the West Wilts group to get an October session in on this site.
There were still good numbers of Blackcap and Chiffchaff around as there always are in early October but with a big 84 Meadow Pipit's caught, including an unsual occurance of a retrap from last week there were obviously still plenty passing through on passage. Another 9 new Goldcrest's means that we've now ringed over 150 in the last month so at least this species appears to have had a good breeding season.
This could now well be the last session at this site this year depending on the weather. As it stands this site has given us 3562 new birds this year including 1322 Blackcap, 81 Garden Warbler, 256 Whitethroat, 538 Chiffchaff, 137 Willow Warbler, 67 Sedge Warbler, 103 Swallow, 236 Meadow Pipit and 26 Whinchat. An awesome total but over 1000 birds down on last years massive haul.
239 new, 11 retraps (PD, OF, MH)
Meadow Pipit 83(1), Blackbird 1(1), Song Thrush 4(1), Wren 1(1), Dunnock 3(2), Robin 6(1), Blackcap 62(5), Chiffchaff 52, Goldcrest 9(3), Blue Tit 1(2), Great Tit 2, Long Tailed Tit 12(2), Yellowhammer 3
As a result of no photos being taken on the day I make no excuses for adding a photo of the Barred Warbler caught at Herdlavaer, Norway, the 4th of the year caught at this site.
SAVERNAKE
We were joined by my mate Malcolm who rings raptors in South Africa and his much better half Charlotte from Canada who is also a raptor and owl specialist. We were also delighted to be joined by Paul Aubrey who has recently moved to Wales and it was lovely to have Paul back again for the day. This private site in the Savernake area is one of the last remaining strongholds for the rapidly declining Willow Tit and even at this site they are now declining because of changes of habitat management.
We maintain several feeding stations at this site and they tend to attract a wide variety of species. Malcolm started ringing in the UK many years ago but Charlotte has never ringed here so she was able to ring all of the common woodland species such as Nuthatch, Treecreeper, Marsh Tit and Great Spotted Woodpecker. We tried a couple of tape lures and duly ringed a couple of Blackcaps and Chiffchaffs, and then the Goldcrests kicked in and they really were in good numbers with a total of 77 ringed which is one of our best days for them. Whilst we were a bit disappointed that we only caught two Willow Tits, the total of 13 Marsh Tits shows that this species is doing pretty well and we retrapped three from 2014 and two from 2012.
Paul got the privilege to ring that little woodland jewel, the Firecrest which was a first for him as after a few good years we haven't done very well with them recently. We had tried for Tawny Owl but they weren't playing but a Jay must have taken umbrage to the call and Charlotte had the 'fun' of taking it out of the net. Charlotte is well used to handling large and dangerous birds such as Snowy Owls but this Jay was certainly a lively fellow and gave her a couple of small trophy wounds.
Coal Tits are having a good year and we duly ringed 60 and we retrapped one that was ringed at the same site as a nestling in 2014.. Willow Tits were notable by their absence but towards the end of the morning we retrapped one from last year and then Charlotte was lucky enough to ring one.
This really was a fantastic mornings ringing and a really good team effort ensured that everyone got a good chance to look at a wide range of species. 237 new and 24 retraps shows just how rich this woodland is for birds and thankfully our large and high quality team ensured all went smoothly. MP, AM, AF, PW, PA, MW, CE
Firecrest 1, Willow Tit 1 (1), Marsh Tit 8 (5), Coal Tit 60 (6), Great Tit 30 (6), Blue Tit 19 (3), Long Tailed Tit 3 (1), Nuthatch 2, Treecreeper 7, Jay 1, Great Spotted Woodpecker 1, Blackcap 7, Chiffchaff 4,, Goldcrest 77, Dunnock 2, Robin 7 (1), Wren 5, Chaffinch 2 (1)
