23/09 Greenham Common

 Location: Greenham Common Western Enclosure Week 39
Session: 23-Sep-2020, 07:40 to 10:50hrs

Notes: A short session today due to the rain forecast. When I arrived it was spotting but soon stopped. I limited to two nets to cover any sudden downpour. As we were about to leave the enclosure, after nets up, a group of Blackcaps, all male, flew from the adjacent gorse scrub into one of the nets . We captured eight of at least ten, also a Chiffchaff. Soon after these were processed it began to spot with rain again and the rain radar showed heavy showers approaching. As is often the case, the rain clouds went each side of the plateau and it cleared. The sun even came out for a while. A walk round found several more Blackcaps in the scrub to the south. Unfortunately the birds stopped coming after this, with just another Chiffchaff, a late Willow Warbler and a Reed Bunting processed. At about 10:15hrs the dark rain clouds began to appear again in the west, so we decided, having pushed our luck somewhat, to take the nets down at 10:30hrs. As I was leaving it began to spot a bit but didn’t come too much.

Present:  JL,IW
Weather: Overcast, spotting occasionally, a sunny interval and then the cloud began to build up, light breeze early, blustery later, cool.
Nets: 36metres in 2 net rides, two 18M net up from 08:00 to 10:30hrs
Lure (Audio): Warblers, Misc Migrants, Redstart, Hirundine, Autumn, WagPips, Wryneck, Yellow-browed Warbler intermittently.

Recaptures: (none)  
Sightings 34 Species: A trickle of Swallows going west, and some flocks of House Martins drifted south during the session. Probably more hirundines drift through during these sessions as we only detect those seen, usually found in the background against the sky when looking as something more obvious. The first Pheasant, for some time, called once from over the back of the bunkers. More Siskins including a flock of 23 came in from the north and four species of raptor is notable.