11/11 Snelsmore Common

Location: Snelsmore Common Feeder

Session: 11-Nov-2018 0740 to 11:30hrs

Notes: The weather forecast for the morning was very wet early, rain showers later. At 06:00 hrs it was pouring but by 06:30 it had all but stopped. When I went out to the car at 07:30 it was spotting. By the time I reached Snelsmore Common, negotiating one or two “flood” puddles, it has stopped raining and was beginning to clear. Nets quickly up, we began capturing immediately and had double figure capture rounds at each end of the session with a couple of single figure rounds in between. The total was six less than last year’s matching visit. Blue Tit numbers were a little down on last year as were Coal Tit while Great Tit numbers show a significant increase. Several pulli from surrounding nest boxes were captured and included a Great Tit from a nest box, the other side of town, at Brimpton GPs; a reasonable movement for our usually sedentary population. A Nuthatch pulli recapture was interesting as they usually nest and fledge in advance of the tits. The brood the recapture was from was a late brood and these normally fail. I remember that the chicks seemed to be very hungry on nest visits. I think only the female feeding them. 

And, we ringed a Woodpigeon, not slow enough this time!

Weather: broken cloud early, sunny and clear later, cool, light breeze

Present: JL, JHW, IW, DL, RDW, RGS

Nets: 24metres in three rides, 6m nets each side of the feeder and 12m just west of feeder, up from 08:00 to 11:00hrs

Lure (feeder): black sunflower, niger, fat balls, peanut

Capture (New/Recapture) 101(89/12)	Matching Visit: 12-Nov-2017 107(81/26)
Species New Rtp 1stCY 2nd+CY BLUTI 40 3 42 1 CHAFF 5 5 COATI 14 14 GRETI 25 8 30 3 MARTI 2 2 NUTHA 2 1 3 WOODP 1 1	Species New Rtp 1stCY 2nd+CY BLUTI 42 9 46 5 COATI 19 9 21 12 GRETI 14 5 12 7 LOTTI 2 1 indeterminate MARTI 1 2 3 NUTHA 1 1 ROBIN 1 1 TREEC 1 1

Recaptures: (12)

BLUTI:            22/05/2018 box WH28, 23/05/2018 Mount Hill box A01,
                       26/05/2018 box CP24
GRETI:           22/05/2018 box WH13, 25/05/2018 box CP35, 26/05/2018 box CP23,
                       27/05/2018 Brimpton GPs box NB-1, 29/05/2018 box WH05
NUTHA:         29/05/2018 box CP22

Sightings 20 Species: Ian’s list, we were very busy so observing took a back seat, however a brief walk around part of the common in a quiet period by two of us produced very little; the most abundant species about the common by far homo sapiens.