North Wilts Group

North Wilts Group

14th December 2014 - Marlborough STW

Today we ringed at a new site for me, Marlborough Sewage Treatment Works. It is a small site located on the edge of the town and is largely concrete, a contrast to most of Matt's ringing sites. We set a series of 2 shelf nets around the tanks for wagtails and pipits and a single 40' net next to a feeder in a small amount of scrub on the edge of the site. With nets all up before it got light, we were able to make a cuppa (also in contrast to most of Matt's ringing sites) and enjoy the sunrise and flocks of corvids, thrushes and wagtails leaving their roost sites.

 
We were then joined by Phil, a RAU student, who Matt met on a volunteer work party and who was keen to experience ringing first hand. Neither of us had seen such large flocks of wagtails before. Matt predicted we would catch 15-20 Pieds/White and a couple of Greys - in fact the split was much more even (15 Pied/10 White/17 Grey), perhaps indicating a good breeding season for Greys? We were able to spend time going over the ID features of Pieds and Whites and I was surprised with the high proportion of Whites we caught. 3 of the Greys were retraps from 2013 and 2014, 1 Pied retrap from 2014 and 1 Meadow Pipit retrap from 2013. Most interestingly we had a control Grey.
 
Although wagtails and pipits dominated the catch as expected, we caught a variety of other species including 10 Goldcrest, 3 wintering Chiffchaff and retrap Marsh Tit and Dunnock. Just as I was leaving we spotted a colony of House Sparrows and Matt decided to stay and put up a net for them - and managed to catch one before they rapidly deserted the site - so we ended the day on 105 birds of 16 species. MP, SW, AF, PH
 
Pied Wagtail 14 (1), White Wagtail 10, Grey Wagtail 13 (3 + 1 control), Meadow Pipit 12 (1), Blue Tit 16, Robin 4, Coal Tit 1, Great Tit 2, Goldcrest 10, Chiffchaff  3, Wren 1, Blackbird 3, Great Spotted Woodpecker 1, Marsh Tit 0 (1), Wood Pigeon1, Dunnock 5 (1), House Sparrow 1

13th December 2014 - Savernake & Nightingale Wood

SAVERNAKE

The opportunity to get to this woodland site is limited these days due to ringers being lower down the pecking order than a deer stalker. I have to give people a weeks notice before I ring this site and so once the date is set, that is that. So, with date set I was then confronted with everyone being unavailable and with the prospect of lots of tits things weren’t looking great when I had phoned around the other local ringers and had drawn a blank. Jack stepped up to the plate and also Nigel Pleass and I was delighted to get superscribe Steve Birt out again. Some folks like this wood and some folks hate it, it is a cold wood but I find it magical and it is one of the last remaining strongholds of Willow Tit.
 
We tried a Redwing set even though we have never caught Redwing at this site before and it yielded 7 which in any other year would be a good day. With that frippery out of the way we got down to the serious high level conservation monitoring of the Willow Tits. Each Willow Tit is fitted with a unique sequence of colour rings so that we can identify them in the field whilst monitoring them in the summer. This site is even more unusual in the fact that we also ring Marsh Tits so we get the opportunity to see both alongside each other giving the team the chance to compare all identification features. All in all, this was a very pleasant mornings ringing in good company and very satisfying that we have most of the Willow Tits in the wood marked setting us up for some high quality monitoring work for the next year. MP, JN, NP, SB
 
wilmarsh
 
Willow Tit 6, Marsh Tit 7 (1), Coal Tit 20 4, Blue Tit 30 (2), Great Tit 10 (3), Blackbird 2, Redwing 7, Goldcrest 20, Treecreeper 2, Long Tailed Tit 2, Chaffinch 3 (1), Robin 1, Dunnock 0 (1)
 
Afterwards Jack and I went onto the downs and fed a couple of farmland sites and the flocks there are simply awesome with Grey Partridges walking around teasing Jack who has yet to ring one. At the second site, we set a net set for Fieldfare and ringed six which are our first of the year.
 
Fieldfare 6, Robin 1, Yellowhammer 1, Magpie 1
 
The day total of 119 new and 8 retraps doesn’t represent the full on nature of the day.
 
NIGHTINGALE WOOD
 
Thrush numbers appear to dropped off a little in the last week as we caught far fewer Redwing's than we did last weekend although we did manage to double our Fieldfare totals for the winter to a pathetic two birds ringed.
 
Other interesting birds caught all came from the extra feeding station we set up the other week. The first net round produced a Jay followed by 2 Green Woodpecker's in the same net on the next round.
 
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Other than that finch and tit numbers were again rather low. One of the retraps we caught, a Chaffinch, was originally ringed in March 2009 but this bird had a very bad scaly growths on both legs caused by mites which was so bad the ring would not move.
 
Numbers well down with 74 new and 30 retraps. GD, PD
 
Green Woodpecker 2, Wren 3, Dunnock 1(2), Robin 2(2), Blackbird 3(2), Fieldfare 1, Redwing 37, Goldcrest 1(1), Long Tailed Tit (1), Blue Tit 3(5), Great Tit 4(11), Jay 1, Chaffinch 8(3), Greenfinch 5(1), Bullfinch 1(1), Yellowhammer 1, Reed Bunting 1(1)

6th December 2014 - Nightingale Wood & Hannington

NIGHTINGALE WOOD

After ringing over 100 Redwing's in 2 sessions last weekend we were hoping for another decent catch.

The morning was cold and frosty which had obviously made a large number of thrushes more overnight and we were soon swamped with Redwing's with over 70 caught in just the first 2 net rounds using the Latvian lure and my 30mm large mesh nets.

We also managed to catch our first Fieldfare of the season. We are having a really poor year for catching Fieldfare largely because there have been very few passing through this site and although Redwing flocks were passing through all the time for the first few hours of daylight we noted less than 10 Fieldfare. Most years the Redwing/Fieldfare catching ratio is around 10 to 1, this year its currently 408 to 1.

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Once the Redwing's tailed off the morning was fairly quiet in terms of finches and tit's so I had enough spare time to set up the bonus feeding station we used last winter when the river flooded and left our normal net rides waist deep in water. This feeding station is in a different part of the wood and so catches us some extra birds once the Redwing numbers drop off in a couple of weeks.

Even though it was quiet I forced myself to stay on to do a thrush roost. While sitting in the car listening to the football on the radio a Sparrowhawk came flying straight at the windscreen and dived off towards one of my feeding station nets. By the time I'd rushed to the net it was just reversing out and flew off down the ride. I then noticed a second Sparrowhawk at the far end of the sa,e net which also managed to roll out of the shelf beofre I could get there leaving me unamused.

The next net round did make up for this as a Kestrel that had spent the afternoon showing an interest in one of the Redwing lures had gone into one of the large mess nets so had no chance of getting away. I don't catch many of these, less than one a year,  so unsuprisingly this was the first of 2014.

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The roost was a bit of an anti-climax compared to the morning with only 5 more Redwing added but we'd managed an amazing 93 for the day. 133 new, 14 retraps. GD, PD

Kestrel 1, Wren 2(1), Dunnock (1), Robin (1), Blackbird 5(1), Fieldfare 1, Song Thrush 1, Redwing 93, Blue Tit 2(2), Great Tit 1, Chaffinch 9(1), Greenfinch 11(4), Goldfinch 1(1), Bullfinch 1(1), Reed Bunting 5(1)

HANNINGTON

 We didn’t have much of a team lined up so I had to enlist the help of my lovely wife to come and scribe but I always seem to drag her out when it is freezing cold. Our little team was completed by Anna and Biff. The net set only included four nets plus two especially for Redwing but at this site in the Thames valley that would probably be enough.

 
We set a dog leg of 30mm mesh nets for the Redwing in a new plantation and because we had time on our hands we played Tawny Owl for a bit as a speculative effort. At dawn we went to put the Redwing tape on for Biff to find a lovely adult Tawny Owl in the net. We set up the ringing table by the barns and had the unusual luxury of electricity so I put a fan heater on to keep the team warm. The gamekeeper turned up and we had a good chat.
 
First net round and the Redwing nets were bulging and then the sparrow flock hit our other nets and we were busy. It was really heartening to catch quite a few Tree Sparrows amongst the House Sparrows and our first Yellowhammer of the autumn. It got a bit busy so we closed two nets.
 
Retraps included a 3 year old Yellowhammer and a Great Tit ringed as a nestling in June 2013. Star of the show however turned out to be a Tree Sparrow that we thought would just be a local bird but I have just checked my database and it was in fact ringed as a nestling on 27th July 2014 near Broad Hinton, so a movement of 16km north east, this is really valuable to have genetic mixing of the Marlborough Downs population with the Thames Valley population; movements like this make all the efforts that I put into conserving this species worthwhile.
 
151 new and 22 retraps made for a busy but interesting morning.
 
Tawny Owl 1, Redwing 58, Song Thrush 2, Blackbird 2, Tree Sparrow 11 (1), House Sparrow 14 (1), Chaffinch 18, Bullfinch 0 (3), Goldfinch 2, Reed Bunting 1, Yellowhammer 4 (1), Robin 8 (2), Dunnock 7, Blue Tit 17 (10), Great Tit 5 (6 ), Woodpigeon 1
 
Tawny

30th November 2014 - Nightingale Wood, Kennet Valley & Swindon STW

NIGHTINGALE WOOD

On another session to catch some more Redwing we were joined by Adam how joinded us on a rather quiet morning in terms of numbers although the quality was high.

Adam had been out with Matt yesterday when he'd a big day including catching a Woodcock. In the 15 or so years I've been ringing I've made countless attemps to catch one and have had the circling the net and flying paralell but never caught one myself. Well, Adam is welcome back any time as first net round he came back with a Woodcock for me.

We caught a good number of Redwing and a Jay but other than that it was very quiet for small birds coming to the feeding stations. GD,PD,AC

Woodcock 1, Great Spotted Woodpecker (1), Dunnock (1), Redwing 36, blue tit (5), Great Tit (4), Treecreeper (1), Jay 1, Chaffinch 2(1), Greenfinch (1), Goldfinch 1

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KENNET VALLEY & SWINDON STW

After yesterdays tit fest I was slightly concerned that this site could be a bit busy because the river keeper who fills the feeders said there were quite a lot of birds. I was even more concerned when Jack pulled out the night before but a quick call to Mike Hamzij and my concerns were put to rest. The day didn’t start as planned because Mike was nowhere to be seen but he is a reliable bloke so I thought he would be lost so I drove three quarters of a mile and found Mike parked up sat very contentedly in the wrong layby. Luckily this delay didn’t cause an issue because the site is a simple yet very effective set of four nets around one feeding station and we even had time to set a dog-leg for Redwing. The Redwing net worked well with 15 ringed, considering that this is not a good site for Redwing this return is pretty good but it also shows that you need to keep challenging your ideas about net sets because last year we set nets for Redwing only 50 metres away and caught 2 so it just shows that the precise siting of the nets can be crucial.
 
The feeding station nets were just busy enough to keep Mike and I occupied. Ringing with Mike is always a good experience because he is calm but with a good sense of humour and it is nice to see him ringing birds that he doesn’t ring much because in his group he often scribes so today he filled his boots with Kingfisher, Marsh Tit and Redwings but best of all a male Cettis Warbler that in my view is a bit overdue at this site. There were a few Siskins high in some nearby Alders but they didn’t come near our feeders. A few Grey Wagtails passed along the river and I have hatched a plan to try for them next time I ring here.
 
I really like this site as it is one of my prettier sites with the beautiful River Kennet flowing alongside.
 
105 new and 24 retraps completed another good morning. The retraps were reasonable with a Goldcrest from last year and three Blue Tits ringed at a site a mile away with the oldest being originally ringed in 2010.
 
Blue Tit 41 (18), Great Tit 14 (3), Marsh Tit 3, Coal Tit 3, Long Tailed Tit 3 (1), Chaffinch 8 (1), Goldfinch 2, Bullfinch 1, Redwing 15, Blackbird 2, Robin 5, Wren 1, Cettis Warbler 1, Goldcrest 3 (1), Treecreeper 1, Kingfisher 1, Great Spotted Woodpecker 1
 
cettis
 
In the afternoon I decided to have a go for the small Starling roost at Swindon STW and I was really pleased to be joined by Graham as we don’t often ring together. A net set for Green Sandpipers failed, a Redwing net got another 11 Redwings and the Starling net produced 11 Starlings and 2 Reed Buntings. After a bit of scrabbling around we also managed to catch an adult Moorhen which is the first that Graham has ringed for many years. MP, GD
 
Starling 11, Redwing 11, Reed Bunting 2, Moorhen 1
 
Moorhen

29th November 2014 - Nightingale Wood & Savernake Forest

NIGHTINGALE WOOD

We were hoping for another good morning of Redwing catching afyrt catching 58 earlier in the week and we were not disappointed. Again the first few rounds produced a lot of birds and we had reached 50 by the time they had started to tail off mid-morning.

Quite a few Blackbird's were knocking about in the hedgerows that weren't there a few days ago and we'd caught 7 by the end of the session.

Small birds were in short supply with very few finches around although we did catch another 2 new Chiffchaff's.

It was a very quiet afternoon while I waited for roost time so I had to make do with listening to the football on the radio and drinking coffee.

Roost time produced about another 20 Redwing so a final count of 72 for the day was impressive and the best day catch I've had. 93 new, 22 retrap. GD/PD

Great Spotted Woodpecker (1), Robin (2), Blackbird 7(2), Redwing 72, Chiffchaff 2, Blue Tit 2(4), Great Tit (10), Greenfinch 5(1), Goldfinch 1, Bullfinch 1, Chaffinch 2, Reed Buntint 1(2)

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 SAVERNAKE FOREST

What a day! Paul A and I have been filling the feeders at this area of regenerating birch in a clearing which is amongst the loveliest bits of Savernake Forest for six weeks and the feeders have been emptying more rapidly each week. This week they drained very quickly and we knew we would be busy but we could never have envisaged what was to ensue. By Thursday morning we had a team of two and it was looking a bit dodgy but then the team came out of the woodwork and we had a team of six including Adam joining us for his annual visit.
 
It wasn’t a large net set and just as we were finishing setting, three Woodcock flew low overhead and one went into a net which was a great start; Anna ringed this bird which means that Biff who started ringing with us in June is the only member of our team who hasn’t ringed a Woodcock which is quite amazing. At dawn a cloud of Redwings appeared over the latvian recording and we ended up ringing 31. After this, our world filled with the expected cast of woodland birds but sadly again no Willow Tits.
 
The team was really pushed but pulled together really well to cope with the situation and particular plaudits to Adam for suffering not only biting Blue Tits but also our particular brand of humour.
 
By close of play we had ringed an incredible 283 and processed 20 re-encounters which is a bit mad. All of the retraps were from the same site except a Marsh Tit that was ringed 2 miles north as a nestling in 2013 and was originally retrapped at this site last winter. Afterwards I took Biff to the 40th anniversary celebration of the Wiltshire Ornithological Society, it was a bit of a who’s who of Wiltshire birding and just because we don’t get masses of rarities like coastal sites doesn’t mean that we don’t have some superb birders in the county. MP, PA, AF, SW, AM, AC
 
Woodcock 1, Jay 1, Redwing 31, Blue Tit 111 (7), Coal Tit 39 (5), Marsh Tit 2 (2), Great Tit 25 (1), Long Tailed Tit 9, Treecreeper 1, Goldcrest 16, Nuthatch 3, Chaffinch 26 (1), Bullfinch 2, Robin 6 (2), Blackbird 2 (1), Dunnock 6 (1), Great Spotted Woodpecker 2
 
Woodcock

24th November 2014 - Nightingale Wood

Having the day off work meant that I hadn't bothered with trying to dodge the rain over the weekend although depressingly the weather forecast was for temperatures at -2° with thick fog all day. As this ringing site is the lowest point for some miles around and is generally a fog magnet this sort of forecast usually means nets that freeze hard enough to bounce a brick off. Thankfully the few mist patches in the distance came to nothing and we enjoyed a sunny bright day.

With the 30mm large mesh nets set for Redwing's and the Latvia lure playing the first net round produced 28 and the next couple of rounds got another 16. Then with the sun shining on the nets the Redwing's dried up.

It was also quite a good day for finches with Greenfinch and Chaffinch both in decent numbers. Interestingly there were again no Lesser Redpoll's despite this being the peak time to catch them here and not only haven't we caught any this Autumn, we've not even heard any flying over.

As the morning was the first heavy frost it was no suprise that Chiffchaff's were on the move and we managed to catch 3 in the reedbed although we couldn't turn them in to anything more interesting than normal colybitta.

I decided to stay on to do a thrush roost so spent a few hours in the afternoon processing the odd few birds until it got dark. The roost itself produced another 12 Redwing and a Song Thrush but despite playing a Fieldfare lure none were caught and very few were around. Todays catch of 58 Redwing's now takes me to over 200 for the year.

A decent day with 118 new, 33 retraps. GD/PD

Great Spotted Woodpecker 1, Wren 1, Dunnock 1(1), Robin (1), Blackbird 1(1), Song Thrush 2, Redwing 58, Chiffchaff 3, Goldcrest 1, Long Tailed Tit 5(4), Blue Tit 4(6), Great Tit 5(11), Chaffinch 14(3), Greenfinch 16(4), Goldfinch 4(1), Bullfinch 1(1), Reed Bunting 1

Redwing 5

23rd November 2014 - Moulden Hill Lake

 
As forecast, it rained hard all morning so I went out feeding the farmland sites and adding new feeders provided by the Marlborough Downs Nature Improvement Area.
 
The rain was forecast to stop early afternoon and it did so I went to Moulden Hill Lake to try a Reed Bunting roost. I used to do the odd Reed Bunting roost effort here years ago and then numbers dropped to make it not worth doing. Clearing the rides didn’t take long and I set two nets, one playing Reed Bunting. I heard a Chiffchaff so I added a Chiffchaff call and caught three but again I heard an eastern Chiffchaff and once again failed to catch it. There were at least 5 Water Rails present so I tried the tape and I caught one.
 
Reed Bunting numbers weren’t high but 6 ringed and one retrapped that was ringed at Swindon STW on 19th October was reasonable. This is one of the few sites that puts me right in the public eye and you see the full spectrum of humankind at this location from responsible dog owners to those who allow their dogs to run amock totally out of control, all ages of kids and even horse riders. Thus, it ends up as a constant ringing demonstration but todays highlight was a family who had a little pug called... Dave!
 
This site is close to my house and is easy to operate so I will make sure that I ring it a bit more this year as I really liked this little three hour session.
 
Reed Bunting 6 (1), Chiffchaff 3, Blue Tit 2, Wren 2, Water Rail 1
 
Water Rail

22nd November 2014 - Savernake area & Swindon STW

 
The forecast was extremely dodgy with rain forecast at 0600 but potentially no rain after 9, so we opted to go for it and take the risk of sitting there and then driving home. I was joined by Simon, Anna and Biff with the latter two enjoying a visit to this private woodland site for the first time. This is a special site because it still has Willow Tits but even here in their last stronghold in southern Britain they are declining.
 
We set 7 nets at feeders and in likely looking spots and with the first round done it started to rain. We made the decision to close and as soon as we closed, the rain stopped and we carried on on what turned out to be a windless overcast day. The morning turned out to be a great training session for the more subtle points of ageing and sexing and I definitely sensed the team making some progress. Anna and Biff ringed their first Coal Tits, and Biff filled his boots with his first Nuthatch and Marsh Tit. Goldcrests dominated the catch at this site like they always do but very sadly we did not catch a Willow Tit and in fact probably for the first time ever in this woodland I did not even hear a Willow Tit.
 
Nutter
 
We then went to a nearby farm to collect half a tonne of barley which we took to another farm ready for feeding farmland birds.
 
We then went to our favourite site, Swindon STW and set a net for Pied Wagtails and a triple net for Redwing. We had a look round to review and plan our ongoing conservation management work and counted a season high count of 20 Snipe and a Jack Snipe. Water Rails appeared to be everywhere. We ringed two Chiffchaffs, one a standard colybita and the other a rather pale Abietinus type. The Pied Wagtail net failed completely but the Redwing net got nine which sounds okay but there were probably 200 present.
 
ab chiff
 
The day total of 93 new and 7 retraps was pretty respectable for the time of year. All in all this was a great day and we loved every minute. MP, SW, AM, AF
 
Goldcrest 35 (1), Coal Tit 13, Blue Tit 14 (3), Great Tit 3, Marsh Tit 1 (1), Nuthatch 1, Wren 6, Robin 2 (1), Dunnock 2, Blackbird 2 (1), Redwing 9, Chiffchaff 2

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