11/12 Greenham Common Western Enclosure

As the weather forecast looked good for this morning and the next scheduled feeder session is after the 15th Dec, I decided to ring the Western Enclosure, just to see. There was a ground frost and it was misty early. This clear quickly to sunny and cold, warm in the sun. Even the cattle were standing enjoying the rays.  The usual nets were up by about 08:15hrs, no hurry. Audio playlist Autumn and BCCCFCGC attracted little. A passing interest from a Redwing and a Great Tit being the only birds seen in or near the enclosure throughout the session. Decided we were wasting our time and began taking the nets down at 10:00hrs. I had the first 18M nets bagged when a Great Tit flew across its ride and into the nearby 12M net, so not a blank session after all. It was a re-trap ringed in July, aged as a 3J (1CY and juvenile plumage) but today (11th Dec) it had an alula and greater covert score of 3 and 0 respectively and the primary coverts were also adult in colour. I noticed that the 1st primary was very tatty, so it had maybe moulted most of its wing feathers to adult following some sort of trauma. A check of previous years ringing at this site in December shows that for most years since I began here in 2010 only two session have taken place previously. Most years I think the weather has put me off. The years I did manage to ring are as follows:

Year	Species ringed	Date
2017	Blue Tit 2, Long-tailed Tit 1, Goldcrest 1	05/12/2017
2013	Blackbird 1, Blue Tit 1, Great Tit 1, Meadow Pipit 1, Redwing 1	17/12/2013

No sign of any Meadow Pipits at the western end of the common today and the Redwings apart from one showed little reaction to the audio. I didn’t expect to capture much if anything today, but you never know. 

Sightings 27 Species: Don't think we missed much today, the Brambling, Linnets and Bullfinch were pickup while I was putting up the nets; before the audio. Nice views of the Golden Plover flock, gold plumage glinting in the sun as they flew west. Only three Magpie seen, usually at least six present. One of the Song Thrushes was singing also briefly a Great Tit. No Blue Tits detected out on the heath, Ian had  some in the woods when he was parking though. The best sightings today are the Dartford Warblers; one near where I park the car and the other called near the main track, east of the enclosure towards the bunkers.

JL with IW