09/07 Greenham Common

Location: Greenham Common Western Enclosure
Session: 09-Jun-2017 06:00 to 10:20hrs

Headlines: On arrival about four Stonechats were in and around the enclosure and probably had roosted there. I always intend to start earlier, in fact I am usually up before dawn but things seem to drift and I rarely reach the common before 05:30, today I didn't make it until after six. We started without audio and captured four in about an hour. There was little sign of activity and no apparent breeding territories detected for about two weeks so we tried audio lures. Instant result, a first round of 15 including several: Blackcap, Whitethroat and Goldcrest. Of the three species just one Whitethroat had been detected pre-audio. The following round produced seven and included a juvenile Dartford Warbler. Next we had a Stonechat, Whitethroat, Chiffchaff and a Garden Warbler. As expected this time of year almost all were juveniles. The first bird of the morning was a very bright male Linnet that I forgot to photograph and the last bird also a Linnet recently fledged; tail still growing. We had visitors from Sweden today: Rupert and Tove and our capture apparently included Provencesangare and Svarthakad Busksvatta! bet you can't guess the English name unless you can speak Swedish or look in Svenson.

Weather: Bright, sunny, some cloud, hot, calm early, breezy later.
Present: JL, IW, DL, RGS, RDW, TW
Nets: 84metres in 5 rides of 18M, 18M 12M, 18M 18M,up from 06:30 to 10:00hrs
Lure (audio):   Blackcap, Chiffchaff, Goldcrest, Firecrest, Willow Warbler intermittently.
Capture (New/Recapture)

35(34/01)
Species New Retrap Juv Adult BLACA 7 6 1 BLUTI 4 4 CHIFF 4 4 DARWA 1 1 GARWA 2 2 GOLDC 5 4 1 GOLDF 1 1 GRETI 2 1 1 LINNE 2 1 1 STOCH 1 1 WHITE 5 1 4 2	No corresponding 2016 visit, we don’t usually try audio this early but breeding started and finished about three weeks early out on the common in 2017.

Recaptures: The one recapture was a Whitethroat ringed 14/06 (25days) probably the parent of some of the juveniles captured.

Sightings 37 Species: Ian's bird list. Most of the warblers and goldcrests would have remained undetected had we not been ringing. Apart from the Common Terns the list is of species regularly seen at this time of year. Few thrushes about due to the dry weather, they will be under the tree canopy feeding amongst the bracken.