North Wilts Group

18th September 2016 - Swindon STW

 

We had a great team lined up for Sunday and so I went in on Saturday evening to set the nets. I set a two shelf wader net as a little bonus net and it came up trumps. As I walked towards the net at dusk I could see a bird in it and that is always exciting when you have set a net for water birds, I could see it was a snipe species but it was too small. I then realised that it was a Jack Snipe. This is a great record because it is the second earliest ever recorded in Wiltshire with the earliest record a field sighting by me on 10th September 2005. This bird is over a month earlier than any other Jack Snipe that I have ringed.
 
WP 20160917 21 31 00 Pro 21
 
We all met the next day with our special guest for the day being Paul Aubrey who ringed with us until a year ago when he moved to Wales. As I was setting nets the previous evening I thought we would do well because I could hear Chiffchaffs and Blackcaps calling across the site and sure enough first thing in the morning the site was alive with birds. We were kept busy for several hours with short breaks for us to ring a Snipe and a Teal, both extracted by Anna. We had a team of six ringers and there can't be many groups in the country where only one member of the team hadn't ringed Snipe or Teal. Star bird of the day was an adult Green Sandpiper, originally ringed in August 2015 as a first-year. Special mention has to be made for Noahs mum who once again was a truly brilliant scribe and such a valuable member of the team, without a top class scribe we would not be able to have run the morning as well as we did.
 
Gsand
 
Snipe
 
Teal
 
At a few points during the morning I sat back and watched the team and it was fantastic to see everyone operating so professionally. After the session, Paul told me that it was brilliant to see how well everyone has improved and that we were a very slick team.
 
By this time of the year the species diversity falls and the catch is normally dominated by Blackcaps and Chiffchaffs and so it proved today with 157 of the former and 86 of the latter. During the morning we ringed 314 birds and processed 21 retraps and a control Blackcap. MP, PA, AF, PW, NW, AM, JW
 
Green Sandpiper 0 (1), Teal 1, Jack Snipe 1, Snipe 1, Kingfisher 0 (1), Blackcap 157 (4), Chiffchaff 86, Sedge Warbler 13, Reed Warbler 12, Whitethroat 2, Willow Warbler 2, Goldcrest 1, Swallow 1, Robin 11 (4), Wren 7 (3), Dunnock 3 (3), Blackbird 5, Great Tit 1, Blue Tit 4 (2), Long Tailed Tit 0 (2), Reed Bunting 4 (2), Bullfinch 1, Chaffinch 1