It was with a little trepidation that I approached my return visit to Lower Moor Farm this morning. At my last session I captured over 137 birds: a lot of work for a one-man band, and little time to enjoy the birds you have caught. I set my nets exactly as last time, with one difference: following on from my incidental catch of one at Ravensroost on the 13th September, I decided to have a real go at catching Meadow Pipits today. I copied a method used effectively by Matt Prior: set up a triangular net set with one of the angles kept open. The bottom shelf of the net is kept close to the ground, Meadow Pipits fly low, a lure is put into the middle of the net set and you wait. When Meadow Pipits are attracted to the lure you run at the set and they fly off into the nets: it is just a relief that there was nobody there to video my lumbering carcass trying to run at the nets. We caught 22 – if I was faster it might have been 50. We used 3 x 18m nets – I think that gave them too much room to take off and get over the nets, so next time I will use 12m nets. It was fun though, watching Meadow Pipits sitting on top of the nets, one was even sat on the loudspeakers of the lure but still got away. However, enough found their way into the nets to give a good catch.
The catch was as follows, New (Retrapped): Blue Tit 8; Great Tit 2; Long-tailed Tit 1(4); Meadow Pipit 22; Wren 1(2); Dunnock 3; Robin 3; Blackbird 1; Blackcap 14; Chiffchaff 9; Reed Bunting 1(1). Totals 65 new, 7 retrapped.
There are still good numbers of Chiffchaff and Blackcap being caught, all juveniles. Chiffchaffs have certainly bred throughout a long summer: three of the nine were still in post-juvenile moult.
Today I had help setting up from two of the trainee conservationists that the Wildlife Trust have employed this year: Matt Calaway and Naomi Perry. It was a great help. Matt had to go off and do his scheduled work at 9:00 but Naomi was able to spend the whole session with me and helped (hugely) with the take down. Naomi started by scribing for me but she was keen to have a go and so, when things slowed down after the first two rounds, she started by learning how to handle the birds, picking up the ringers' grip and extracting birds from the bags quickly and efficiently (and was not fazed by the usual nipping attentions of the Blue Tit). Her ringing was spot on and her biometric measurements very quickly became accurate. Definitely a potential ringer for the future. ST