West Wilts Group

Ellie and I carried out CES 3 at Lower Moor Farm this morning.  The weather was initially misty, moist and windless: perfect midge weather, and for the first time this year I had to break out the citrinella.  The sun broke through at about 10:00, and rapidly burnt off the mist, and then it became very hot and sunny: at which point the birds decided to take cover in the shade, unlike the mad humans.

It was a nicely rewarding session, with our first juvenile Long-tailed Tit, Chiffchaff and Chaffinch catches of the year.  The Chiffchaff is the earliest youngster of that species caught at the site by my team by just under three weeks and the Chaffinch the earliest by five weeks. Long-tailed Tits are early breeders so catching them at this time is expected (earliest catch by a single day - but that is almost certainly just an accident of the timing of the session).

The list for the day was: Treecreeper (1); Blue Tit 1(1); Long-tailed Tit 15(2); Wren (1); Dunnock (4); Robin 2; Song Thrush (1); Cetti's Warbler (1); Reed Warbler 1; Blackcap 6(5); Garden Warbler 1(1); Chiffchaff 3(1); Goldcrest (1); Chaffinch 1; Bullfinch (2). Totals: 30 birds ringed from eight species; 21 birds retrapped 12 species, making 51 birds processed from 15 species.  This is a massive improvement on last year's catch of seven birds ringed from five species; 20 birds retrapped from 11 species, 27 birds processed from 13 species.  Even allowing for the welcome increase in Long-tailed Tit youngsters, this is a significantly larger catch.

Lovely though it was to catch these juvenile birds, particularly after the poor breeding season last year, my highlight of the morning came when I went to photograph the magnificent stand of Yellow Flag Irises in the corner of Mallard Lake. As I approached the lakeside, to get the angle for the best photo, I heard the characteristic "plop" as a Water Vole swam away and made its escape. It is great to know that they are there, as well as along the stream that provides the border between civilisation and barbarism (Wiltshire and Gloucestershire).  ST/EJ

Given the torrential rain on Wednesday, I postponed my monthly session at Tedworth to the Thursday. It was the usual smallish catch but we caught our first Starling for the site:

This is the 35th species that we have caught and ringed at the site: putting it level in diversity with the number of species caught at the entire Ravensroost complex; one less than at Lower Moor Farm and two less than at Blakehill.  As Tedworth House is very much a work in progress, with a large wildlife pond scheduled for development this autumn and further thinning of the wood to open it up for more productive undergrowth, it will be interesting to see how this continues to develop.

The list for the session was: Great Spotted Woodpecker (1); Jay 1; Blue Tit 1; Great Tit 1(1); Coal Tit (1); Wren 1(1); Dunnock 1(4); Robin 1; Blackbird 1; Blackcap 2; Starling 1.  Totals: 10 birds ringed from nine species; eight birds retrapped from five species, making 18 birds processed from 11 species.

I was helped with the set up by Dave Turner and Gemma Clinch from the Wildlife Trust and joined later by Rob Hayden, with whom I ringed the Raven chicks on Good Friday.  Talking of which, the chicks are now enormous but still in and around the nest, constantly calling to their parents to feed them.  They cannot be long off fledging now: they certainly warrant the use of wide brimmed hats or an umbrella if you are walking anywhere near their cedar tree.

The session started off nicely, with a retrapped Great Spotted Woodpecker, ringed as an adult last year. This was followed by the Starling. Perhaps the best catch of the day was my first juvenile Dunnock of this year: freshly out of the nest.  Soon after we caught a female whose brood patch was showing the oedematous folds left after the blood vessels retreat to normal once the young fledge.  Finally, we caught a beautifully marked adult male Jay. As ever, we had an audience for the processing of the most attractive bird of the day.

Rob and Gemma helped me take down at the end of the session, for which I am grateful. ST/DT/GC/RH

Following on from the rather disappointing results in CES1 we were hoping for a better return in CES2.  I was joined for the session by Jonny and David.  The weather was dull and overcast, usually excellent conditions for ringing but, unfortunately, the breeze got up about 9:00 and affected the later catch. We ended up with one more bird than in the equivalent session last year and the quality of the catch was excellent.  The CES requires that we put our nets in the same positions year-on-year, but we are allowed to put up some additional nets to extend the catching area. Their catch just isn't recorded in the CES results. We set up two extra net rides and were delighted that they all caught.  The net positions are shown in the photograph below. Those in yellow are the CES rides, white are the extra rides.

CES ride 3 is our Greenfinch ride: if we catch them, this is where they are usually caught. Today we caught three, all there. There was also a female Bullfinch, which we could not ring, because it was suffering with the Fringilla Papilloma Virus.  It is over two years since I last saw this in a Bullfinch. Given that we are catching good numbers of them that are clean in all of our sites, this was a disappointment.  Extra ride 2 was empty throughout the session, apart from one retrapped Robin, and then, as we were shutting the nets at the end, prior to take down, I came across two of these beauties in that net ride, within three feet of each other:

To catch one is uncommon, to catch two in one session is remarkable. If it had been a pair that close together in the net it would have been more understandable at this time of year, but they were two adult males.  Along with these, we were delighted to catch our first two juvenile Robins of the year and this adult Cetti's Warbler:

After a cracking year for them in 2015, the first time they had been caught and ringed at Lower Moor Farm, when we ringed two adults and four youngsters, 2016 was a severe disappointment, with just one adult and one juvenile ringed in the year. This bird, an adult male, was caught in a different ride (2, as opposed to 3) from the birds of 2015 and 2016.  Hopefully we will see a return to 2015 levels this year.

The list from today was: Green Woodpecker 1(1); Treecreeper 1; Blue Tit (4); Great Tit (3); Dunnock (4); Robin 2(1); Blackbird 2(3); Cetti's Warbler 1; Blackcap 1(4); Garden Warbler 1(1); Lesser Whitethroat 2(1); Chiffchaff 1(1); Willow Warbler 1(4); Goldcrest (1); Greenfinch 3; Bullfinch (2); Reed Bunting 2. Totals: 18 birds ringed from 12 species and 30 birds retrapped from 13 species, making 48 birds processed from 17 species.  ST/JC/DW

Jonny and I met at the unearthly hour of 4:30 at Somerford Common on Wednesday. We had the nets up and ready for business by just after 5:30 and had a good, productive morning, with nearly 60 birds captured.  Every bird, except for a newly fledged Song Thrush, was in breeding condition.  It was an interesting catch - with Willow Warbler being the most frequently caught bird (12), followed closely by Blackcap (8) and then Bullfinch (7). 

The list for the day was: Jay 1; Great Tit 1; Coal Tit 2; Marsh Tit 1(1); Long-tailed Tit 3(1); Wren 4; Dunnock 1(2); Robin 4(1); Song Thrush 1; Blackbird 1; Blackcap 8; Garden Warbler 1; Chiffchaff 3; Willow Warbler 8(4); Goldcrest (3); Bullfinch 2(5). Totals; 41 birds ringed from 15 species and 17 birds retrapped from seven species, making a totals of 58 birds processed from 16 species.  It really is our most varied woodland site.  Note the absence of Blue Tit.

It is now approaching five years since I was let off the leash to ring independently of my trainer (and just over two years since I got my full A-permit, so he is no longer responsible for my actions )  and we are catching birds that were ringed in those earlier days.  EXR389 is a Willow Warbler that was ringed as an adult of indeterminate age at Somerford Common on the 5th May 2014.  That means that this bird has made the trip from the UK to sub-Saharan Africa at least four times.  That is a round trip of some 7,500 miles each year, so this 9g bird has travelled at least 30,000 miles in its life, under its own steam.  Bullfinch D983496 was ringed as a juvenile at Webb's Wood in August 2014 and recovered as an adult male at Somerford this session. Obviously not as impressive in terms of distance as the Willow Warbler but good to see it surviving and that it has moved a few miles from its birth site to Somerford Common.

Any session where I catch a Marsh Tit is a good session: catching a new bird at this time of year is encouraging and retrapping one of last year's juveniles is doubly so.  Jonny's favourite catch of the day was the Jay, a juvenile female:

Ageing Jays at this time of year is based upon two factors: width of the outermost tail feather and the number of black bands on the outermost Greater Covert (ignoring any black tip to the feather).  As you can see from the red-ringed feather in the following photograph, this bird has eight black bands, hence a juvenile:

He was pleased to process it, and I was pleased to escape the consequent potential injuries (I have told all of my trainees and helpers that only wimps use gloves for handling Jays or Magpies. They learn very quickly how to process them with the minimum amount of pain.) ST/JC

I did a ringing session at Red Lodge Sunday morning: I was on my own so I only set a few nets but I had a decent catch.  The weather was good for ringing at the start of the morning: dull, overcast and windless. The dawn chorus is wonderful at the moment but, although it dies off, there was a continuous background of birdsong all morning. It is the best time of the year.

The list for the day was: Great Spotted Woodpecker 1; Treecreeper 2: Blue Tit 1(1); Great Tit (2); Coal Tit 1; Long-tailed Tit 1(2); Wren (1); Robin 2(4); Blackbird 3(3); Blackcap 5; Chiffchaff 3(3); Willow Warbler 1; Goldcrest 1.  Totals: 21 birds ringed from 11 species plus 16 birds retrapped from seven species, making 37 birds processed from 13 species.