05/11 Snelsmore Common Feeder

Location: Snelsmore Common-FDRCP Feeder. CES 2023/24.01
Session: 05/11/2023  07:45 to 11:30hrs
Notes: An eventful morning. The total for the session was down on what we expect from this feeder, but it was not as low as I feared it might be. By agreement the feeder has been operating since July as visitors to the café like to watch the birds. Uptake was very good such that I had to put up one of our big feeders in August. However, in the first week of September the birds stopped coming, the food was pretty much untouched. Don’t know why, can’t see any feeders up in the house gardens nearby, the obvious reason. 47 is not a bad total but nowhere near the 79 of last year or previous years for visit 1 of the CES.
Some interesting pulli re-traps, all from nest boxes around the common, including a 25/05/2018 (5+ years old) ringed Blue Tit from box CP36 about 200M west of the feeder. This is the first time we have re-trapped it since it was ringed. Just 1 Coal Tit this session instead of 16 last 2022/23.01 winter visit and 10 new Great Tits instead of 18 new and 2 re-traps might indicate a poor breeding outcome for these species to be a contributing factor. The first two rounds of the session were similar to previous winters, 13 and 14 respectively, then numbers dropped to mid low single figures for subsequent rounds. As it turned out this was fortunate.
Cass who opens the café at 10:00hrs didn’t turn up, she had a family emergency, leaving confused customers wandering about including trying to enter the garden which is out of bounds by agreement until the ringing session is completed. Ian was attending to birds in the nets, I was talking to the confused customers and Jon stayed by the cars as he had earlier said he’d has some twinges in his back. I looked across towards the cars and realised that I could not see him. I walked back to the cars to find he had fallen between them, was laying on his back in severe pain and unable to move. Ian and I tried to help him, but he was in too much pain to move. So, we called an ambulance. While all this was going on Ian and me took it in turns to extract/process the few birds coming to the feeder, taking the nets down at 11:00 while making sure Jon was ok and the milling café customers stayed out of the garden away from the nets; fortunately, replacement café staff arrived, and the café opened about 11:30hrs, Several phone exchanges between Jon/me and the ambulance service (mostly them checking Jon was ok) and two hours or so later, around 13:00hrs paramedics arrived, gave Jon gas and air and several pain killers, now as high as kite they lifted him to his feet. and slowly got him walking. Apparently, he has a trapped a sciatic nerve and the best aleviation is to keep moving. After the medics made sure Jon was stabile and instructing on what and what not to do I drove Jon home, Ian following in Jon's car as he was too drugged up and still in considerable discomfort to drive.

Present: JL,IW,JHW.
Weather: bright sunny periods clear, breezy, cold.
Nets: 12M of nets, 6M each side of the feeders up from 08:00 to 11:00hrs.
Lures: Feeders with Fat Balls, Black Sunflower Seed /Sunflower Hearts mix, Peanuts.

*FG full grown age uncertain.

Recaptures:(07)

Blue Tit  pulli ringed: 25/05/2018-box CP36, 24/05/2023-box WH01, 02/06/2023x2-box CP20.

Sighting: We probably missed a few species for obvious reasons although Jon spotted some  flying over while lying on his back, think it distracted him a little from the pain.