There has been a lot of activity in my garden this summer: lots of juvenile Blue Tits, even more juvenile Starlings, of which I caught a fair number earlier this month using my Potter Traps. With the wind forecast to be low enough to set some nets, I set up two 6m 5-shelf nets either side of the feeding station. To reiterate: I do still feed seed and peanuts, plus fat balls, mealworms etc. However, yesterday I put up freshly cleaned and sterilised feeders, and they will be empty by tonight. With no rain and no great flocks of Greenfinch, just a steady trickle throughout the day, I am quite comfortable with my feeding regime. That I haven’t seen a Tricho suffering Greenfinch or Chaffinch since I ditched the bird table speaks volumes.
Anyway, I have a very early start tomorrow, so thought that I would just open them when I awoke, which I did at 7:45. I caught my first birds at 8:00. A bunch of juvenile Blue Tits and these two:
Juvenile Coal Tit, Periparus ater
This is the first juvenile Coal Tit my team has caught so far this year. That was followed by this:
Juvenile House Sparrow, Passer domesticus
If you look at the colour developing on the lesser coverts, I would hazard a guess that this is a male bird, but I wouldn’t hang my hat on it. Again, the first juvenile House Sparrow my team has had this year and, to be honest, they don’t know that I have got these either.
The other two new for the year were adult, and very healthy looking Greenfinch. I don’t currently have any arable farming sites, so miss out on quite a few finches unless they come to the garden.
Anyway, the list for the morning was: Blue Tit 11; Great Tit 1; Coal Tit 1; Starling 1; House Sparrow 1; Greenfinch 2. Totals : 2 adults ringed from 1 species and 15 juveniles ringed from 5 species, making 17 birds processed from 6 species.
I shut the nets for two reasons: the wind was gusting much stronger and, secondly, I wanted breakfast. It got much stronger so I have not reopened them.
I was contacted by Andrew, one of the local farmers who have put up Barn Owl boxes. Andrew has two, one hasn’t had anything so far, the other has had Jackdaws in the second year. This year they had noticed a Barn Owl hunting over their fields near the box. The plan was to shut my nets between 10:30 and midday and pop out to check their owl boxes. I was on site at 11:15 and Andrew and I went to check. The box where they had seen the the owl flying around had this beauty roosting in it:
Male Barn Owl, Tyto alba
Its plumage was pristine and the wings and tail exceptionally clean and beautiful:
It was a beautiful, and very feisty, bird: I have a few spike holes in my fingers!
Anyway, a lovely morning and much better than I was expecting.
On the 10th June we ran a session for the Swindon Wellbeing Group at the Firs. It was a decent catch: 58 birds ringed and 12 birds retrapped from 16 species. I am not sure why I decided to go back there so quickly – something to do with the projected wind direction and speed. It was nice to know that the temperature was going to be bearable, with no chance of heat stress for the team or, more importantly, the birds.
I was joined by David, Laura, Adam and Pete at 5:00 and we set the usual nets down the central glade. To be fair, they set the usual nets. Unfortunately, I am having some serious mobility problems, so I set up the ringing station and stayed there for the session. Laura was team leader for the session.
The obligatory bird hit the nets just as were opening them, this time a juvenile Blue Tit. Over the next two and a half hours we caught another 37 birds: slightly better than usual, but not extraordinary. What happened next was remarkable for us in any of our sites in June, the next four rounds produced: 20, 18, 24 and 20 birds respectively. This number, 120 birds in the session, is nearly double any previous catch at any of our Braydon Forest sites and larger than our largest catch at Lower Moor Farm (109 birds processed).
The key to the catch was the number of juvenile Blue Tits, as you can see from the catch list: Great Spotted Woodpecker [2](1); Nuthatch 1(2); Treecreeper [5]; Blue Tit 2[48](5); Great Tit [6]; Marsh Tit [1](1); Long-tailed Tit 2[2]; Wren [3]; Dunnock [2](1); Robin 1[7]; Song Thrush 1; Blackbird 1; Blackcap 1[10](2); Garden Warbler [1](2); Chiffchaff 1[7]; Goldcrest [1]; Chaffinch (1). Totals: 10 adults ringed from 8 species, 95 juveniles ringed from 13 species and 15 birds retrapped from 8 species, making 120 birds processed from 17 species.
It is just remarkable across the board. Take the Blue Tit juvenile numbers: 65 ringed in June across the Forest. The next largest catch of juveniles in June is 25! The only times that monthly figure has been beaten is in October to December inclusive, when the feeding stations are operational, and then only eight times in 13 years to date.
Nice to add another juvenile Marsh Tit and a retrap, to improve the figures in my previous post. Other cracking catches: five juvenile Treecreepers! The most in any June, and equal to the total number of juveniles ringed last year.
This is another nice statistic:
Juvenile Great Spotted Woodpecker, Dendrocopos major
This is the fourth juvenile we have ringed this month. To put that into perspective, we have never ringed more than four juvenile Great Spotted Woodpeckers in any one year. In fact, we have only matched this figure on two occasions: 2020 and 2025. We have only ever caught two single juveniles in June before: 2020 and 2025 again, and none any earlier.
We shut the nets on the last round at 11:30 and processed the last batch of birds. Much to Adam’s disappointment, as he was looking down the slope he saw a Sparrowhawk shooting along the net line! That would have topped the lot!
Anyway, we packed away and left site by 12:30 after a most astonishing session. Since the clearance work the Firs has just got better and better. The only thing, apart from the Sparrowhawk, that would have made the session complete, a Spotted Flycatcher. We have only caught nine since 2016 and five of those have been in the Firs: three of those in the Firs in the month of June.
The following territory report is the work of Robin Griffiths, the volunteer warden of the Ravensroost complex, and his team of committed volunteers, on behalf of the Wiltshire Wildlife Trust, and is published here with his permission.
I will start with his summary report, including a link to the full report. I have then copied and pasted the Bird section from that report. After that I have added my own analysis of the implications of his report for the Marsh Tit population in Ravensroost Wood and the accuracy / reliability of territory mapping when done so on a single visit. This will be contentious given previous challenges to the viability of the Marsh Tit population in the Braydon Forest.
Robin’s Summary:
Ravensroost Bird survey 2026
The role of warden of Ravensroost includes doing wildlife surveys on the reserve, which include a butterfly transect and regular moth trapping and Brown Hairstreak egg searches. While the butterfly transect is exactly halfway through to date, the bird territory survey, based as it is on birdsong, finishes around or before midsummer day. This is because most birds stop singing around that time. The survey area is the same as the butterfly transect so does not included the whole wood.
This year there have been some interesting developments, some good, some bad. On the good side we have seen six species with increased numbers of estimated territories, of which two are significant. The Song Thrush went through a very bad patch around a decade or more ago with numbers dropping all over the country apparently for no obvious reason. I am happy to say that the Ravensroost bird survey reflects the bird’s recovery – territories in the last four years have increased as follows – 2 in 2023, 3 in 2024, 4 in 2025 and – I am pleased to say – 5 this year – those people who notice birdsong and have visited the reserve this spring will not be surprised at this as the Song Thrush song has been very prominent indeed. The other success story is the Nuthatch, the very typical woodland specialist – while the territory estimate for all three of the last years was 3 territories, this year there has been an apparent jump to 5! I have no explanation for this increase but hope it continues for this characteristic woodland bird.
On the down side, three species that seem not to have done so well are Coal & MarshTits and Spotted Flycatcher. The last of these, being a fairly elusive migrant that often seems to appear quite late in the season, sometimes accompanied by juveniles!, could well still be in the wood unseen so far this year – I do hope so as it is one of my favourite birds. Coal Tit is a surprise as its numbers previously were quite reasonable at 2, 4 and 3 territories respectively – but this year it seems to have declined to just a single territory. Finally Marsh Tit, the wood’s most characteristic bird to many of us. This year I have been unable to give it a single territory despite the fact that I know there is at least one, probably 2 pairs in the survey area. This is because during the 11 visits comprising the survey I have come on it just once. The rules of the survey dictate that I can’t give it a number unless there are at least two contacts on different dates. However Simon Tucker’s ringing results give a much better picture so this suggests the territories survey does not fairly assess the species’ true status. To be fair this has happened before, in 2024, while in 2023 and 2025 I estimated two territories.
(ST – I have extracted the bird section of the report, but you can reach the full report by following the link.)
Bird Section of the Full Report
BIRD ESTIMATED TERRITORIES SURVEY 2026 – 2023, 2024 & 2025 figures in brackets – (P = present but territory not established)  Green = increased, Red = decreased,   Arranged in order of abundance. Eleven visits were held weekly from April until June. Thanks to those who helped me with the visits.
Present but not established on territory: Red Kite P (P,1,P), Pheasant P (2,1,P), Treecreeper P (1,P,1), Magpie P (-,-,-), Goldfinch P (1,1,1), Marsh Tit P (2,P,2) – Marsh Tits, one of the special birds of the wood, are particularly elusive during the survey period – on non-survey days contacts were: one singing on 25th April, two calling in different parts of the wood on 8th June.The survey unfortunately is inadequate for assessiing the status of this species. Several juveniles were trapped and ringed by Simon Tucker during the period so breeding obviously took place. Redpoll – a single was seen on 7th April and a flock of 6 on 9th – probably lingering wintering birds, although they have bred in or near the reserve in the past.
No records this year:Spotted Flycatcher** – (P,P,P), Tawny Owl – (-,-,P) – this only applies to the survey – birds are present and are often heard at night,Jackdaw – (2,1,1)
*Goldcrest – I have recently realised that due to hearing deterioration I cannot hear Goldcrests and maybe some other birds except in very exceptional circumstances.Therefore results for Goldcrest and maybe Treecreeper as well cannot be relied on. This came to my attention last year when I was away and Jane did the survey in week 11 – she heard 3 separate Goldcrests when the most I had heard during the season was 2 in week 2 and 1 in week 10, and no other contacts.
**Spotted Flycatcher – For the first time for several years no contacts were made with Spotted Flycatcher during the survey period – nor any reports from other observers
***Pied Wagtail – for the first time in years a Pied Wagtail male was seen on the survey route on three occasions from 29th April to the 28th May, carrying food on 15th May. It must have had a nest nearby though probably not on the survey route itself. These sightings reminded me of the situation in Finland where the White Wagtail seems to be a woodland species.
End of Section
Obviously, the lack of Marsh Tit territory data concerned me, having been monitoring the species since 2012, but been involved in ringing and recatching them since I started ringing in 2009. This prompted me to look at my data, as a previous territory survey found similar results and, despite our ringing records, that surveyor claimed that our population in the Braydon Forest was insignificant. As regular followers of the blog will know, that prompted so many other posts, ending up with last year’s magnificent 5.5% of all UK Marsh Tits ringed in England being ringed in the Braydon Forest. The Ravensroost complex has always been a key component of that population, so I wanted to be sure that things weren’t going awry.
What I decided to do was to look at the numbers, in the following categories: Marsh Tits ringed by year, both adult and juvenile; juveniles ringed by year, individual birds captured by year (i.e. birds caught multiple times in the year were counted just once) and then total captures by year (i.e. ringing catches, recaptures counted in total). These are the results:
Marsh Tit captures in the Ravensroost Complex
As you can see, six months into the year we are above average for full years across all categories. That is encouraging, but when I just look at the first six months of this year, there is every reason for a great deal of optimism:
I have no idea of what went wrong in 2021. We did a similar number of sessions to the norm, with average size catches, since I completed the coppice cycle project in 2021.
Across every category, there is nearly a 100% increase on the average at this date. For the sake of statistical accuracy, I have included this year’s figures in the average. If I remove them and recalculate, the result is even more encouraging:
The last few years we have focussed on the 8-year coppice area but, for the rest of this year, I plan to split our sessions between the coppice and the natural growth area of the wood. I expect the results to be hugely improved by that. All in all, I am hopeful that we will exceed the numbers we achieved last year and, perhaps, increase the significance of the Braydon Forest as a haven for this threatened species.
Obviously this excessive heat has had a huge impact on our activities, not least because we don’t want to cause the birds any more stress that they are dealing with at the moment. Also, as Ringer-in-Charge, the health and welfare of my team is a major responsibility, not that they are so daft that they wouldn’t come prepared.
We did get together on Monday, before this heatwave fully kicked into gear. We thought, set the nets in shade, and our ringing station also, plus a couple of brollies, and we should be okay. The only reason that we were doing this is because I had agreed to do a demonstration for the Swindon Men’s Mental Health Group, otherwise I wouldn’t have taken it on. Obviously, when we booked it over a month ago, none of us had any idea of how the weather would turn out. However, having got everybody organised, I got a text Sunday night saying that, by the time they got there at 11:00, it would be far too hot for their health. That would have been somewhat ironic!
The team was big: we had David, Laura, Miranda, Pete and me. We met in the main car park at 5:00 and set the following nets:
1 = 3 x 18m 4-Shelf Nets; 2 = 2 x 18m 5-Shelf Nets; 3 = 2 x 18m + 1 x 12m 5-Shelf Nets.
What can I say: we set nine nets and in four hours we caught nine birds! This was the catch: Great Tit (1); Marsh Tit (1); Wren 1[1]; Robin 1[2](1); Blackcap [1]. Totals: 2 adults ringed from 2 species, 4 juveniles ringed from 3 species and 3 birds retrapped from 3 species, making 9 birds processed from 5 species.
Without exception, our worst ever June catch in Somerford Common. We packed up at 11:00 and went home. Of course, I got home to find about 15 Starlings, 6 Jackdaws, 5 Blue Tits, 2 Great Tits, 1 Coal Tit, 2 Robins, 2 Dunnocks, 2 Blackbirds, 3 Woodpigeons, 2 Magpies, 1 Wren, 6 Goldfinch. Greenfinch and 2 Feral Pigeons in my garden devouring all of the seeds, fat balls and peanuts I had put out after dark Sunday night. There was also one very frustrated Grey Squirrel who couldn’t get beyond the baffles! I should have stayed at home!
Given the current hype about not feeding seeds to the birds in the summer: my feeders are being emptied on a daily basis! It seems every species, except the Jackdaws and Magpies, have learnt how to get onto the seed feeders, even the Blackbirds, who started by pretending to be Hummingbirds, but have now learned how to hang on, and the Starlings who cling like crazy. I have had to purchase a caged feeder to give the smaller birds a look in. Mind, I also rotate the feeders on a weekly basis, with three cycles of feeders, so each week starts afresh with clean feeders. I haven’t seen a single bird showing signs of Trichomonosis since I ditched the bird table about seven years ago.
With yesterday living up to its forecast of very high winds and rain, and the forecasts for the Ravensroost Meadows area to be dry and sunny all day, with a gentle breeze from the south-west, I decided to move our session to today and to only set the nets that were sheltered from the predicted wind direction.
Laura, Pete and I arrived on site at 5:00 and set the following nets:
All nets were 5-shelf Ecotone 16mm mesh. Nets 1, 2 and 3 each comprised one 12m net. Net 4 comprised one 6m net. Ride 5 comprised three 18m and one 9m nets. Finally, net 6 comprised one 18m net.
Catches haven’t been of the best in the pond area for over six years, but one lives in hope. We started catching pretty well straight away, and had a steady stream of birds to extract right up until we decided to close them at 11:30.
There was a lot of good catching this morning: a tremendous number of Chiffchaff and Whitethroat for starters. Two of my favourite catches were:
Juvenile Common Whitethroat, Curruca communis
This is our first juvenile Whitethroat of the year. That was followed later in the morning by this:
Juvenile Bullfinch, Pyrrhula pyrrhula
Our first juvenile Bullfinch of the year. This is our earliest capture of a juvenile Bullfinch since three on the 15th June 2019. We have actually only every ringed six in June: three in 2019, two in June 2024 and this one today.
The list for the session was: Blue Tit 1[2]; Great Tit 1[3]; Long-tailed Tit [2]; Wren 2; Dunnock [2]; Robin [4]; Song Thrush 1; Blackcap 1; Garden Warbler [1]; Whitethroat 1[6](5); Chiffchaff 2[10](2); Willow Warbler 2(1); Bullfinch [1]; Goldfinch 2. Totals: 13 adults ringed from 8 species, 31 juveniles ringed from 9 species and 8 birds retrapped from 3 species, making 52 birds processed from 14 species.
One happy coincidence: at our last session in the wood, last Saturday, Adam, Laura’s son, and youngest and a valuable member of our team, ringed a Willow Warbler, ring number TDV734. Unfortunately, it slipped his grasp before it could be measured and weighed. It happens to everyone at one time or other. This morning Laura extracted an already ringed Willow Warbler: TDV734! She finished the job her son hadn’t quite managed to! But, without the ring in place, we wouldn’t have known that.
We closed the nets at 11:30 and took down, getting away at about 12:30 after a very satisfactory session.
Although it is only two weeks since our last visit to Ravensroost Wood, this session was on the schedule because the previous session had to be postponed on several occasions, and there should have been a four week gap. It has to be scheduled in advance because the Wildlife Trust are currently undergoing some deer control in the wood and surrounding area and stalking and ringing don’t mix!
Anyway, it was nice to get out. With the horrendous winds on Friday I did worry about how much it would be windy this morning, but it had calmed down. Having said that, the breeze we had, although from a southerly direction, was very cold! Fortunately, I always carry extra layers of clothes but Pete came in his T-shirt and had no other upper body wear: I didn’t envy him.
I was joined by David, Laura, Adam, Claire and Pete. We met at 5:30 and we set the same nets as last time. We were hopeful of the same result but, unfortunately, it was not to be. In fact, it was exactly half what we had last time. That was due to our not catching any juvenile Long-tailed or Great Tits, just one, very worn out, adult female Great Tit.
There were multiple highlights in the catch though: our first juveniles of Great Spotted Woodpecker, Nuthatch and Wren for the year:
Juvenile Great Spotted Woodpecker, Dendrocopos majorJuvenile Nuthatch, Sitta europaea
I have to be honest, I am used to seeing Nuthatch juveniles in paler, greyer plumage than this one but its wings and tail were brand new, it had bare underwings and flanks, with no sign of moult. It has to be a juvenile, especially when compared with the two adults we recovered, the female of which was absolutely desecrated by the task of rearing its brood.
Juvenile Wren, Troglodytes troglodytes
I love how perfectly the chequerboard on the outer primaries line up. This is because they all grow at the same time and rate. When adults moult it is done sequentially, and they never line up like that again: hence the chequerboard effect. Equally, at this stage the undertail coverts are all brown with no pale spots. They will start developing those later in the year.
In addition to these three, we also caught another three juvenile Marsh Tits to add to the one we caught in Ravensroost two weeks ago. It is looking like another good year for the species in the Braydon Forest. To put it in perspective, on average we ring 6.5 Marsh Tits in the first six months of the year. That includes last year’s 16 in the first six months. With 15 so far, it is entirely probable that we will surpass that this month. Also, the annual average is 19.9 so we are almost certain to beat that very soon.
It was a funny session: long gaps between any birds being caught, then they would come in little clumps, so it was very much a social occasion. The catch, though, was good quality: Great Spotted Woodpecker 1[1](1); Nuthatch 1[1](1); Great Tit (1); Marsh Tit [3]; Wren 1[1](1); Robin 1[5]; Song Thrush 1(1); Blackbird 1(2); Blackcap 4[2]; Garden Warbler [1]; Chiffchaff 1[3](1); Willow Warbler 1[1]. Totals: 12 adults ringed from 9 species, 18 juveniles ringed from 9 species and 8 birds retrapped from 7 species, making 38 birds processed from 12 species.
As I said earlier, the key difference between this session and the last were the lack of Blue, Great and Long-tailed Tits. They comprised a total of 29 of the catch on the 27th May, this time just the one very worn out adult Great Tit.
We packed up just after 11:30. Many hands make light work, and the broth wasn’t spoiled, so we were all off site by just after 12:00. Not as busy a session as we had hoped, but a decent variety, and a nice collection of juvenile birds.
With the weather forecast suggesting it was going to rain all day, the Met Office giving a 70% chance of rain, I thought I would have a look at their satellite tracking system. This said that it would rain until 7:00 and would then clear up, so I told the team to meet at the Firs at 7:00, so we missed the rain. Getting up at 6:00 and finding that there had been no rain at all was somewhat galling!
Anyway, Miranda, Laura, Pete and I met up at 7:00 and set our nets down the central glade: 9 x 18m and 2 x 12m nets. Working in two teams, we had them open by 7:45 and started catching straight away.
The catch started quite well, building up to a couple of rounds with ten and nine birds respectively. A high proportion of those birds were juvenile Blue Tit, Blackcap, Chiffchaff and Robin. Much as that was lovely, the highlight had to be three Nuthatch: two unringed females and one retrapped male. We actually caught five Nuthatch during the session. It is not something that happens very often.
Miranda had to leave at 10:45, as she was going over the road to Echo Lodge Meadows to do a bumble bee survey with her Malmesbury & District Natural History Society. It had been planned for Saturday but the weather had been so dire that it had to be cancelled as, indeed, had our planned ringing session for the bio-blitz at Lower Moor Farm.
Soon after she left the Swindon Well-being Team arrived, hence the title for this piece. The Wiltshire Wildlife Trust run a whole series of groups for helping adults and children who have life challenges get in touch with nature. That often involves bringing them along to my ringing sessions, so they can get closer to the bird life. I do know that they thoroughly enjoyed today’s session, Astonishingly, as soon as they arrived we had our two best rounds of the day: 18 and 16 birds in each catch respectively. Even better, most of them were juveniles. However, there had been a lot of talk about Great Spotted woodpeckers, how they loved them but never got to see them close up. Anyway, as we were processing the birds from the last catch, two birds hit the nearest nets: two of the aforesaid Great Spotted Woodpeckers: they were beside themselves in delight. That one was an adult male, and the other a recently fledged juvenile, added to their enjoyment.
The list for the session was: Great Spotted Woodpecker [1](1); Nuthatch 4(1); Treecreeper 1; Blue Tit 1[15](1); Great Tit [2]; Long-tailed Tit [3[(1); Wren 1(2); Dunnock [1]; Robin 2[8](1); Song Thrush [1](1); Blackbird [1](1); Blackcap 2[5](3); Garden Warbler [1]; Chiffchaff 3[3]; Willow Warbler [2]; Goldcrest [1]. Totals: 14 adults ringed from 7 species, 44 juveniles ringed from 13 species and 12 birds retrapped from 9 species, making 70 birds processed from 16 species.
That is a truly excellent catch for this site in the summer months: obviously boosted by the recently fledged juveniles. Perhaps more impressive is the 16 species. That is a lot for a small woodland like the Firs. All of the juveniles were highlights but the stand out for me was this bird:
Juvenile Garden Warbler, Sylvia borin, photo courtesy of Miranda
In all of the time I have been ringing in the Firs, I started in August 2012, we have only ringed 12 Garden Warblers at this site. The first in 2019, then none until 2024, when the wood was thinned and opened up more. Since then we have had three in 2024, two in 2025 and, so far, four in 2026. There has been an upsurge of them in Ravensroost this year as well and looks like it could be a record year for them in the Forest.
We decided to do a last round and close the nets as we went, which we did, having extracted another 16 birds. Once we had processed them we took down and cleared away: leaving the well-being team to their campfire lunch!
One thing that they found in the little recreational and seating area were the remains of a Woodpigeon and a Great Spotted Woodpecker that had clearly been predated by a Sparrowhawk, probably a female, possibly a Goshawk.
So, after a thoroughly enjoyable session, we managed to get away by about 13:30. Rather made up for the lack of action over the last week.
One disappointment for me was this:
Ragged Robin, Lychnis flos-cuculi, photograph courtesy of Miranda
Only disappointed because I wanted us to catch an adult Robin looking knackered after rearing a brood of chicks, so I could come out with another of my terrible puns, and put a photograph of it up and title it “Another Ragged Robin”! The plant Ragged Robin is very much a declining species in the UK, so finding several of them in the Firs was, itself, something of a treat.
After an extremely frustrating week of rain, wind, wind and rain, and a fairly iffy forecast until Friday of this week, I had become a bit desperate. Not that I didn’t make use of the time to carry out some mist net mending but, apart from aggravating my bad back, it is mind-numbingly boring. I have enjoyed the spectacle in the garden though. Juvenile Greenfinch, Goldfinch, Blackbird, Dunnock, Starling, Blue Tit and Great Spotted Woodpecker have been busy in the garden, along with their parents.
The Starlings have been the busiest. As well as hitting the mealworms as soon as they are out, they, along with the Jackdaws and Magpies, have worked out how to hang onto the fat ball and peanut feeders. Even worse, they have learnt how to hang on to the seed feeders and take a bellyful of that. Actually, so have the Blackbirds, Robins and Magpies, alongside the small species they are meant for. This does mean that my feeders are being emptied every three days, and I use a three set rotation. I have not seen any sign of disease in any of the birds in my garden since a sick Fieldfare six winters ago – and that had nothing to do with bird feeding.
Anyway, it was too windy to try and set any nets today, but we were rather inundated with Starlings and a family of Blue Tits: two adults and five youngsters. A couple of the youngsters were still demanding to be fed, but three were happily hitting the peanuts and the seed feeders. I thought that I would see what I could catch with my Potter Traps:
They have definitely seen better days but two were in working order, so I baited them and put them out around the feeding station area. The other two I took into the garage and set about repairing them. As I repaired each and put them out into the garden they almost immediately caught a Starling.
I started at 13:00 and kept them open until 17:00. i.e. after lunch and before tea. In that time I caught 13 Starlings, all bar two were juveniles. The other two were adult females. Both had very obvious brood patches, with no signs of feathering over. It looks like second broods are a possibility this year.
Juvenile Starling, Sturnus vulgaris
Although Ihave been seeing them for a few weeks now, not one of these juveniles had started their post-fledging moult.
Anyway, it was a pleasant way to spend an afternoon: mending and ringing.
Quite the most phenomenal month. Obviously our figures have been boosted by Jonny’s monitoring of titmouse boxes in the Trowbridge area and beyond, but particularly Green Land and Biss Woods. In addition, as part of his role at the WSBRC, monitoring Tree Sparrow and Lapwing breeding, has also added significantly to that part of the catch. However, that doesn’t explain that our number of non-pulli ringed was over 100 more than last May, from 47 species, compared to 39 species last May.
The pullus ringing has been phenomenal. As well as the Blue and Great Tits have done, Jonny has managed to ring a spectacular 21 Lapwing chicks, compared with 5 last May. The 10 retraps are this year’s birds picked up as a part of the ongoing species monitoring. In addition to that, he got to ring his first ever Stone-curlew chick. This is good news for two reasons: a great addition to his list but, also, this was not on Salisbury Plain but a long way east of the Plain. I am keeping the location confidential because it is so special. I am aware that the RSPB reserve on Winterbourne Downs were hoping for them to breed there this year: at least, that was their excuse for refusing me access to ring there, so perhaps they are beginning to spread out from the Plain.
However, I strongly suspect Jonny’s bird of the month was this:
Little Ringed Plover chick, Charadrius dubius
This species is specially protected and needs a schedule 1 licence to monitor and ring the birds, which Jonny has for Lapwing, Stone-Curlew, Little Ringed Plover and Barn Owl. This is at Langford Lakes. Last year they tried to breed but the nest got flooded out. This year the site was managed, the nest protected from potential predators and this was the result: two Little Ringed Plover chicks ringed. Let’s hope they survive! The last time that any chicks of this species were ringed by someone in the group, as it was then configured, was in 2003 in the gravel pits near Ashton Keynes. Fabulous bird, and increasingly uncommon.
After last year’s disaster with Barn Owls, this year the recovery is phenomenal: actually it is better than that. We don’t usually ring many pulli in May. In fact, prior to this May we had ringed actually only ringed 5 in May: in 2024. This month we ringed 62 of them: 43 in the Braydon Forest area and 19 in the Chippenham / Lyneham area. What is rather remarkable is that the 43 we have ringed in the Braydon Forest area have come from just 8 boxes. Of the boxes we have checked, the four at Upper Waterhay have all drawn a blank, except for one that had a brood of Jackdaws, whereas within the Forest only two had no sign of activity, one because somehow its front door had been ripped off, two were clearly being used as roosting sites, and one had a brood of Jackdaws in it. We didn’t actually ring all of the chicks we found first time round, as some were too small. However, we ringed three broods of 7, two of which had an eighth chick which was too small to ring, two broods of 6, one of which had a chick too small to ring, then one brood of four and two broods of three. We have never had a brood of 8 before so to have three broods with that many chicks is remarkable for us. To put this into more perspective: the most we have ever ringed in a single year before was 33, in 2024, With them breeding so early this year I would not be surprised to find that we get second broods as well.
This is the list for the month:
So, increases across the board: an excellent number of species processed . I cannot remember a month when we have processed 50 species.
Added to the list this year are: Bullfinch, Canada Goose gosling, Carrion Crow, Coal Tit, Grey Wagtail, Linnet, Little Ringed Plover, Magpie, Nuthatch, Sparrowhawk and Tawny Owl pulli. The only species missing from the list this year was Collared Dove.
One final anecdote: the Carrion Crow was ringed by Jonny. On his way along the A338, near East Grafton, he noticed a Carrion Crow sat at the side of the road begging for food. He stopped to see if it was okay, and it begged at him for food. Instead he gave it a ring and then carried it across the road to where the parents were foraging and left it in a safe place still calling to be fed! It is only the sixth wild caught Carrion Crow the group has ever ringed or, to put it another way, it is the fifth wild caught Carrion Crow Jonny has ever ringed within the group, and I did the other, back in 2014 (I don’t count the two I did in Oak & Furrows rehab centre).
You can see all of the numbers for yourselves.
I am definitely interested to see how June shapes up.
Our last session of what has been a quite extraordinary month for our entire Group, more of which in the results round up on Monday. Don’t miss it.
Today we were at Ravensroost Meadows. I was joined by David, Laura, Adam and Pete. We met at 5:30 and set our usual nets for the site.
Ride 1 comprised 2 x 18m 5-shelf nets; ride 2 comprised 2 x 18m 4-shelf nets; rides 3, 4 and 5 each comprised 1 x 18m 5-shelf net; ride 6 comprised 3 x 18m + 1 x 9m 5-shelf nets; ride 7 comprised 1 x 6m 5-shelf net and ride 7 comprised 1 x 18m 5-shelf net. We set the ringing station in the shade blocking the gateway into the site.
The nets were open by about 6:30 and we started catching straight away. Although the sun was out all morning the only rides to be even partially affected were 1 and 2.
Unlike Wednesday’s haul, it wasn’t a huge catch. There were a few highlights though. To start with, we caught our first Lesser Whitethroat of the year:
Lesser Whitethroat, Curruca curruca
There is definitely a lot of early fledging going on. Whilst setting up ride 1, a Long-tailed Tit juvenile flew into the net whilst it was still being removed from the bag. David extracted it safely. The rest of its family group were in the hedgerow but, unfortunately for our figures, they all managed to avoid the net in question, so it was the only one that we caught.
Unfortunately, I became somewhat unwell at just after 8:30. As Laura has the appropriate permit I left her in charge and snuck home. She ran the team effectively and efficiently and ended the session at about 11:00. Then she kindly delivered all of the equipment back to my house at about 11:30.
The list for today was: Blue Tit [1]; Long-tailed Tit [1]; Wren 1(1); Dunnock 1; Robin 2[2]; Blackbird 1; Blackcap 1[2]; Whitethroat 3; Lesser Whitethroat 1; Chiffchaff 2; Willow Warbler 1(1). Totals: 13 adults ringed from 9 species, 6 juveniles ringed from 4 species and 2 birds retrapped from 2 species, making 21 birds processed from 11 species.
