North Wilts Group

14th March 2015 - Hannington

14 March 2015

With winter flocks starting to disperse, I thought we would be in for a decent morning at this very bird-rich site but I did think that we would have time on our hands and that I could leave everyone else to the whole process whilst I watched on but how wrong I proved to be. At the time of the first round it was immediately apparent that we would do well with Reed Buntings, Yellowhammers and Chaffinches all in prominent. It was forecast to be quite breezy but it was calmer than expected until 10am when we started to take nets in. Best bird of the morning was a Reed Bunting that was ringed on 24th Spetember 2009 at Roves Farm about 6km away but more importantly it is a very impressive 5 years old. We also retrapped a 4 year old Chaffinch but the day was blighted by a terrible outbreak of papilloma virus in Chaffinches. Another highlight was a nice first year male Sparrowhawk which is the first that Anna has ringed, so after going on about how unlucky she is never catching raptors, she has now ringed a Kestrel and Sparrowhawk in two sessions.

This estate has the best hedgerows in Wiltshire and this is supported by the fact that we ringed a phenomenal 17 Bullfinches and processed 8 retraps as well; this is our record day for this species. The species list was good and gave the team plenty of practice and we were able to fit in some really high quality training. Skylarks and Yellowhammers were singing everywhere but the cold easterly wind meant that we had to keep our winter woollies on.

175 new and 46 retraps made for an excellent morning and made up for a few quiet days recently. MP, PA, PW, AF, AM, TW

Chaffinch 48 (2), Bullfinch 17 (8 ), Greenfinch 3, Goldfinch 1, Yellowhammer 34 (3), Reed Bunting 17 (1), House Sparrow 12, Sparrowhawk 1, Goldcrest 2, Long Tailed Tit 2, Blue Tit 8 (16), Great Tit 11 (5), Robin 3 (4), Dunnock 11 (2), Blackbird 2 (1), Song Thrush 1, Great Spotted Woodpecker 1

5th March 2015 - Marlborough downs

06 March 2015

A little session before work saw me joined by Paul A and Karen visiting from Wales. This was a very exciting session because this would be the first time that we would be fitting Tree Sparrows with ‘PIT tags’ which mean that we can record individuals without having to retrap them and it will open up all sorts of avenues for further study of Tree Sparrows.

This site is a very large and diverse garden and the owners have lots of bird feeders and so lots of birds especially Tree Sparrows. This was to be a busy day with a large team of builders and deliveries, horses being cleaned out, three friendly dogs and the most amazing tame turkey. The Turkey was the star of the show as it was more like a dog than a dog because it followed us around on all net rounds, loved being stroked and when we were extracting birds just stood by us passively.

Ringing these big Tree Sparrow sites is probably my favourite ringing experience because I love looking up the retraps originating from our massive nest box project and when we catch anything over ten retraps we are almost guaranteed local controls giving us more information about how Tree Sparrows use the landscape. The retraps included:

3 birds ringed as nestlings at the same site last summer, an adult from last summer and two adults from December 2012

4 birds ringed as nestlings at a site 1.4km west last summer, 1 bird ringed as a nestling at this site in 2012 and one from 2010 – a four year old Tree Sparrow is a great bird

1 bird ringed as a nestling 2km south last summer

1 bird ringed as a nestling 7km south in 2012 and first retrapped at this site in August 2013.

1 bird ringed as a nestling 11km south last summer

22 Tree Sparrows fitted with PIT tags – what a win.

The Coal Tits were both ringed last March and so must be a pair and the oldest bird of the day was a Robin that we ringed on 31 December 2008 and so is a superb 6 years old. MP, PA, KM

Tree Sparrow 7 (15), Chaffinch 10, Greenfinch 7, House Sparrow 8 (1), Dunnock 8 (4), Blackbird 6, Robin 3 (2), Goldcrest 2, Coal Tit 0 (2), Great Tit 7 (1)

28th February 2015 - Kennet Valley

28 February 2015

The forecast was for very windy but calming down at 0600 so it was clear that we couldn’t ring any of our downland sites. I opted to ring this lovely little site in the Kennet valley but with the lack of Redpolls anywhere in southern England it was clear that our mainstay species of this site would not be present. That said, we still played a call for them but it did indeed catch nothing. I was joined by Biff and Paul W and because we had time, we spent some time with Biff teaching him putting the nets up.

As expected the morning was dominated by tits which is low on conservation value but does give trainees some good experience. A Cettis Warbler sang briefly but eluded our nets and we saw a very unseasonal small Mayfly-type.

60 new and 27 retraps gave the chaps some decent practice. All of the retraps were from the past two years except for a three year old Long Tailed Tit. MP, PW, AM

Blue Tit 29 (16), Great Tit 13 (4), Coal Tit 2 (1), Goldcrest 1, Chaffinch 6, Goldfinch 1, Dunnock 4 (2), Robin 3 (1), Wren 1, Reed Bunting 0 (1)

25th February 2015 - Thames Valley

27 February 2015

I have been surprised how good this site has been this year but another local site has been completely devastated by the construction of a solar farm and so the birds have moved. So much for ‘green energy’! With the limited opportunities to get out due to holiday and poor weather I took the opportunity to take a day off and get out ringing whilst I could. I was on my own until Anna could join me at 09:30 and so I only set six nets in an effort to reduce numbers. This sort of worked but I was operating at full tilt until Anna arrived and then it steadied down and we enjoyed a few hours good ringing and going through another Yellowhammer id class. 15 retrap Yellowhammers show that this species is able to move around a few kilometres in search of food and four of them had moved 4km and another had moved 3.5km. The retrap Chaffinch had moved from the site 3.5km away, pushed by the solar farm work.

11 Bullfinches processed once again shows what a great year they have had and may be form part of an upward trend. On the downside, normally 17 Reed Buntings would seem like a good day but for this site it is pretty low.

Just before packing up, Anna looked round and saw a Kestrel in the net, a quick dash across and she had her bird. It was a pretty stunning adult male, a great way for Anna to start off her adult raptor handling career.

165 new and 22 retraps made for a good morning with some good life histories. MP, AF

Kestrel 1, Yellowhammer 92 (15), Reed Bunting 17, Chaffinch 8 (1), Bullfinch 8 (3), Tree Sparrow 4, House Sparrow 1, Robin 12 (3), Dunnock 13 (3), Blackbird 6, Wren 2, Blue Tit 1

22nd February 2015 - Marlborough Downs

26 February 2015

The forecast was for flat calm at dawn with wind and rain coming in at about 10am, this combined with the fact that I wanted to watch my son play a rugby final meant that I needed a small site to ring. I had just the site in mind which meant a really early start to set some nets for Short Eared Owls and then a set of five short nets round a feeding station at a new private site on the Marlborough Downs. The Short Eared Owl session failed with three birds present but they all missed the net, though one skimmed the top of the net. We did however strike gold with a female Grey Partridge, we did have both of the pair hit the net but the male rolled out. This is only the twelfth Grey Partridge that we have ever ringed so Paul A got a real treat for his birthday present, though his failure to bring any cake along has been duly noted.

Onto the passerine nets and we were kept decently busy with a steady stream of Yellowhammers, Chaffinches and Greenfinches. We have put nest boxes up at this site and with the addition of feeding we are hoping to attract Tree Sparrows here at some point but today was not to be that day. Highlight of the day was a retrap Yellowhammer that was ringed nine weeks ago, three kilometres away and it is interesting that I haven’t had time to feed that site for four weeks so this bird has moved in the search for food. Before we knew it, it was 10am and nets had to come down and I dashed off to the rugby. My lads team sadly lost the game though he scored a try and he did get to have his photo taken with former England captain Lewis Moody which was fantastic.

Later that night I then drove down to the Salisbury Plain for another try at dazzling Woodcock. It was windy and rainy which should be good conditions but nobody told the Woodcock and we didn’t see a single one. We were inches away from catching a Golden Plover but in the end all we got was one Meadow Pipit and a jolly good walk. MP, PA, PW

, Yellowhammer 24 (1), Reed Bunting 2, Greenfinch 11, Chaffinch 25, Dunnock 5, Robin 9, Wren, Blackbird 3, Song Thrush 1, Blue Tit 7, Great Tit 6, Meadow Pipit 1

21st February 2015 - Marlborough Downs

25 February 2015

A month or so ago I agreed to help out on a nest box making day for young carers as part of the Marlborough Downs Nature Improvement Area events programme. The trouble with nest box kits is that they are made of cheap materials and so the final product doesn’t last long. So, I added to my workload and made the kits. Preparation was complete late in the evening of the night before and I was up at 0530 on Saturday sorting the fine details and then I got to site early to set things up and set a couple of nets to catch a few birds to show the kids.

They duly arrived bang on time and I gave an impromptu ringing demonstration and it was immediately obviously worthwhile as the kids loved it and I let a couple of them release birds and when I told the young lady who had the good fortune to release the Tree Sparrow that she was holding more Tree Sparrows than exist in several counties she was a bit tearful.

The group were brilliant and really set about making the boxes to a good standard. A BBQ was laid on which was most welcome and then whilst the group planted trees with the farmer we put the boxes up at the barn and what is great is that these boxes will last years.

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24th February 2015 - Recent Recoveries

24 February 2015

A rather nice batch of recoveries and control details have come through this week with a very high proportion of them either coming from or heading to foreign locations.

The first batch are are controls the group have caught which are then followed by a batch of birds we have ringed that were caught elsewhere.

Species	Site ringed	Date	Recovered	Recovery date	Duration (days)	Distance (km)

Blackcap	Swindon STW	04-Sep-10	Brook Priory, Rutland	08-Jul-14	1403	144
Sedge Warbler	Westdown	09-Aug-14	Donges, FRANCE	13-Aug-14	4	436
Sedge Warbler	Westdown	26-Jul-14	Donges, FRANCE	07-Aug-14	12	436
Sedge Warbler	Westdown	20-Aug-13	Trunvel, FRANCE	16-Aug-14	361	411
Reed Warbler	Nightingale Wood	07-Aug-14	Roseliere, FRANCE	17-Aug-14	10	678
Redwing	Swindon STW	07-Nov-13	Caceres, SPAIN	01-Feb-15	451	1333

Sedge Warbler	Rio Guadaira, SPAIN	31-Mar-10	Swindon STW	28-Apr-13	1124	1609
Sedge Warbler	Cayeau-sur-Mer, FRANCE	18-Apr-10	Swindon STW	31-May-10	43	280
Sedge Warbler	Inchinnan, Dumbartonshire	26-Jul-14	Nightingale Wood	07-Aug-14	12	512
Reed Warbler	Chew Valley Lake, Somerset	24-Jun-14	Westdown	09-Aug-14	46	49
Blackcap	Grimley, Worcestershire	31-Aug-14	Westdown	10-Sep-14	10	114
Grey Wagtail	Kildwick Farm, Yorkshire	23-Apr-14	Marlborough STW	14-Dec-14	235	277
Whinchat	Imber Ranges, Wiltshire	30-Jun-14	Everleigh Ranges	31-Aug-14	62	21
Whinchat	Imber Ranges, Wiltshire	01-Jul-14	Westdown	31-Aug-14	61	6
Redstart	Llanfyllin, Powys	06-Jul-14	Westdown	16-Aug-14	41	193

Singapore 1st-13th February 2015

16 February 2015

We haven’t posted an update recently because I have been away ringing in Singapore with my old pal Nigel Goodgame and Sam Bayley from Surrey who has ringed with me in Gambia and is a great team player, hard worker and good ringer. Three is often called a crowd but this three worked fantastically well together and there wasn’t a cross word in two weeks. Our job was to assess the standards of the current ringers working for the Singapore National Parks and to train them to improve their standards. As part of this I gave a three hour presentation on bird ringing on the first day and half way through the week I gave another two hour presentation to the local ringers about BTO monitoring schemes and how they could be adapted to suit Singapore, followed by a lecture to local conservation officials and volunteers about bird ringing. We also had the good fortune to give a ringing demonstration to the ex Environment Minister whilst ringing waders and we just happened to have been processing a 20 year old Redshank at the time which was brilliant timing.

During the trip the Singapore National Parks proved to be the perfect hosts and treated us fantastically well and between them, they managed to keep up with us three Brits. We ringed at three parks: Sungei Buloh Wetland, Pulau Ubin which is a beautiful offshore island and the Central Catchment Reserve which is a full on jungle. With so much development, the habitats on Singapore have become fragmented and the birds have suffered and consequently bird numbers were low but the National Parks are working hard to preserve what is left.

We were primarily interested in the birds that migrate from the northern hemisphere but we only ringed a few of these including Siberian Blue Robin, Asian Brown Flycatcher, Arctic Warbler and Forest Wagtail. Two wader ringing sessions were disappointing with only a couple of Pacific Golden Plover, Whimbrel and lots of Redshank but it is good to be involved in such pioneering work to monitor waders of the Asian flyway and the adult Redshanks were fitted with geolocators. The increased ne coverage and different net sets that we dreamed up enabled us to catch some unusual birds including two Blue-winged Pittas, Oriental Scops Owl, Schrencks Bittern (2nd ringed for Singapore) and a remarkable 6 Yellow Bitterns and a very impressive Stork-billed Kingfisher.

Other wildlife seen included Red Junglefowl which is the ancestor of the chicken, wild boar, a couple of snakes, estuarine crocodiles, smooth otters and some huge monitor lizards.

This trip was highly successful and as well as improving the ringing skills of the National Parks Team, we have also made some genuine friends and I hope that some of them make it over to us to see how we ring birds in the UK.

Blue-winged Pitta