West Wilts Group

Red Lodge: Sunday, 21st August 2016

With yesterday's atrocious weather causing Blakehill's Festival of Flight to be cancelled, Ellie Jones and I decided we wanted to get some ringing done and, having had to postpone the last session scheduled for there, due to the deer stalking, to have a go at Red Lodge this morning. The rain stopped overnight.  It was still very windy but we were able to set out nets in sheltered rides out of the wind. It turned out to be a quality session: satisfying on many fronts.

We caught our third Spotted Flycatcher of the autumn: a first for Ellie to ring and a real highlight. As well as that, we caught a first Garden Warbler for the site; eight Treecreepers (a record for any of my sessions) and pleasing numbers of titmice, including two new and two retrapped Marsh Tits.  The full list for the day was: Nuthatch 2; Treecreeper 7(1); Blue Tit 6; Great Tit 7(2); Coal Tit 3; Marsh Tit 2(2); Long-tailed Tit 4(1); Wren 6; Spotted Flycatcher 1; Robin 8: Blackbird 1; Blackcap 3(1); Garden Warbler 1; Chiffchaff 1; Goldcrest 1. Totals: 53 birds ringed from 15 species; seven retrapped from five species, making 60 birds processed from 15 species.  We had a slightly higher proportion of adults compared to previous weeks: 15 (25%) of the total. The adults were one each of Wren, Blackcap, Garden Warbler, Chiffchaff and Marsh Tit; two each of Nuthatch, Long-tailed Tit and Treecreeper plus four Great Tit.

The Blackbird was a juvenile undergoing post-fledging moult. It was in decent condition, although slightly underweight (82g). Mind, when you have the deformed bill that this bird has to work with, it is remarkable that it has even got this far:

2016 08 21blabi

The Marsh Tits were the fifth and sixth ringed in Red Lodge this year, out of a total of 11 in the Braydon Forest so far.  This returns it to just above the level seen here in 2014, after the disruption by the thinning operations in 2015, but with four-and-a-half months of the year left to go.

2016 08 21marti

It was a bit of a relief that we caught reasonable numbers of juvenile Blue, Great and Long-tailed Tits. There are certainly more of them around in Red Lodge than we have been catching in the other parts of the Braydon Forest. Once the flocks form for winter, it will be interesting to see how they compare with previous years. ST/EJ