03/11 Greenham Common Western Enclosure

Location: Greenham Common Western Enclosure

Session: 03-Nov-2015 07:30 to 11:30hrs

Weather: overcast misty rather than foggy, wind gusting

Present: JL,IW,RGS

Nets: 160’ in three rides of 60’, 60’ and 40’ up from 08:00 to 1100hrs

Lure (audio): Blackcap, Chiffchaff, Goldcrest, Firecrest, Yellow-browed Warbler intermittently.

Capture (New/Recapture) 46:

Blackbird 2/0	Blue Tit 3/1
Coal Tit 1/0	Goldcrest 15/2
Goldfinch 1/0	Great Tit 2/0
Green Woodpecker 1/0	Long-tailed Tit 1/17

Recaptures: 20

Blue Tit 95d Goldcrest 6dx2 Long-tailed Tit 3y 354d, 3y 15d, 2y 60dx2, 1y115dx3, 76dx9, 32d

Age Range: all 1st winter plumage except

Indeterminate: Long-tailed Tit 18 Adult: Blackbird1, Blue Tit 1

Notes: I nearly didn’t bother as it grew quite windy as I put up the first net, nearly took it down, but I decided to persevere and put up two more nets. The first net  by then had captured a flock of seven Long-tailed Tits and a Blue Tit and Goldcrest; all recaptures. The next round had just a new Goldcrest. A Green Woodpecker, the first Blackbird here for a while and two more new Goldcrests made up the next round. Another tit flock crossed into the enclosure from the opposite direction to the earlier flock. None of the capture had any birds from earlier. It consisted of 11 Long-tailed Tits (some 3+ years old), two Goldcrests, two Great Tits, a Goldfinch, a Coal Tit and two Blue Tits. After processing these four more Goldcrest quickly followed. Then three more and a female Blackbird looking grey with some scaling on the feathers probably of continental origin. The last round consisted of five new Goldcrests and a Blue Tit flew into one of the nets just as we were about to take it down. Eleven  of the Long-tailed Tits were from the big capture of 30 on the 19-Aug including one ringed 19-Oct-2012 and one ringed 11-Jul-2014. Looks like Chiffchaff have finally left the area. Quite a busy morning glad I persisted

Sightings 25 Species: The lack of finches was noticeable and Redwings heard in the mist, not sure how many. A few more Blackbirds about, otherwise little movement, a feature of this autumn.

Blackbird 7 Black-headed Gull 1 Blue Tit 8 Carrion Crow 2 Coal Tit 3 Dartford Warbler 1 Dunnock 2 Goldcrest 25 Goldfinch 6 Great Spotted Woodpecker 1 Great Tit 4 Green Woodpecker 3 Jackdaw 25

Jay 1 Linnet 2 Long-tailed Tit 25 Magpie 3 Meadow Pipit 3 Pied Wagtail 4 Redwing 1 Robin 5 Sparrowhawk 1 Stock Dove 1 Woodpigeon 49 Wren 1