West Wilts Group

Tedworth House: Wednesday, 16th August 2017

A reasonable session at Tedworth House in terms of numbers for the site but really interesting for other reasons. Dave Turner and Gemma Clinch from the Wildlife Trust were running their first session of their new forest skills group: training some of the people being helped by H4H in traditional woodland skills and appreciation.  Our first catch was, basically, Blue Tits.  The second catch was a lovely group of Green and Goldfinches, which attracted a large audience of staff and the forest skills group.  I am always delighted by the responses that I get from the people at Tedworth.

The catch for the day was: Nuthatch 1; Blue Tit 6(1); Coal Tit 1; Wren 1; Dunnock 1(1); Robin 1; Blackbird 1; Blackcap 1; Chiffchaff 1; Goldfinch 3; Greenfinch 2.  Totals: 19 birds ringed from 11 species; two retrapped from two species, making 21 processed from 11 species.  Of the 21 birds caught, 17 were birds that have fledged this year: the adults were the two Greenfinches, one of the Goldfinches and one of the Blue Tits.  Interestingly, and coincidentally, we have only caught Goldfinches and Greenfinches once before at Tedworth: both on the 13th May 2015.  It seems they come together or not at all. ST