05/11 Greenham Common

Location: Greenham Common - Western Enclosure wk 2025-45

Session: 05/11/2025 07:40 to 11:00hrs

Present: IW,JL

Weather: cloudy, few spots rain early, breezy, cool.

Nets: 48metres 3 Rides, up from 08:15 to 10:45 hrs

Lures audio: (BC-CC-FC-GC),(FF-RE),(YB),(SK-LR), intermittently.

Notes: Tuesday was very windy and unsettled, so we postponed the session until today Wednesday. It was still on the breezy side and the low cloud early looked as if it might rain at any time. The rain clouds mostly pass around the Greenham & Crookham Common Plateau as they did today. We ringed a few more Goldcrests and a Chiffchaff, including a re-trap perhaps an indication that some stay around for a few days on the heath. There was little reaction to the audio from the groups of Redwing and finches flying over and about. The weather from now on usually becomes inconsistent and opportunities to ring here become less predictable weather-wise also there are fewer birds moving around the heath. The core period for ringing is weeks no 24 to 45 after which primary ringing effort concentrate on the bird feeders for the rest of the winter and visit here become sporadic.

Recaptures: (01)

Goldcrest       ringed: 21/10/2025

Sightings: As I came through the gate from the Control Tower car park on to the common a Little Egret followed by a Great White Egret flew up from the pools of flood water. IW located the Firecrest with a couple of Goldcrest on the corner of the heath near where he walked in from the woodland. A few small groups of Redwing flew over  also a couple of double figure Woodpigeon flocks. Lesser Redpoll were few plus some of the usual unidentified silhouettes that flew around were probably this species but didn’t call for us to be certain.

The filming around the bunkers continued today and mostly consisted of very loud revving cars while we were nearby. Yesterday on a walk out on the common there were lots of explosions coming from there for most of the day including one from a fireball that shot up very high from the ground I was told by a scared neighbour who was walking their dogs near the bunker fencing at the time. 

02/11 Snelsmore Common

Location: Snelsmore Common Car Park Feeder CES visit 2025/26.01

Session: 02/11/2025 07:30 to 11:45.hrs

Present: JHW,JL,IW,RAD.

Weather: bright sunny, light breeze, cool.

Nets: 6+6M feeder nets up from 08:00 to 11:00hrs.

Lures (Feeder): fat balls, sunflower hearts, peanuts.

Notes: The first Winter CES visit of the season. Lots of Blue Tits again, a little fewer than the 2023/24 winter visit 1. The main difference being just two re-traps as opposed to 11 for last season’s matching visit. Coal Tit numbers are notably down - 6 as opposed to 18. Great Tit numbers are also much reduced - 3 as opposed to 17. The food take up at this feeder is low compared to previous winters. It will be interesting to see if numbers pick up on future visits or if the birds just aren’t there. On the positive side two ring-able Chaffinch, we’ve netted one or two this year but have not been able ring them because they had “grotty foot” (papilloma infection). Looking back, we ringed between 1 and 89 in the 1970's, 24 and 137 in the 1980’s, 17 to 97 in the 1990’s, 55 to 330 in the 2000’s, 45 to 407 in the 2010s and in the 2020s, year totals are 2020-5, 2021-0, 2022-10, 2023-1, 2024-5 and so far this year (2025) we’ve ringed just the two of today’s date. Even allowing for the drop in ringing effort the numbers since 2020 are significantly lower.

FG =age indeterminate

Recaptures: (02)

Blue Tit ringed 17/12/2023 and 12/05/2025 (pulli from Snelsmore nest box CP26)

Sightings: Very quiet not a lot calling or moving about.

31/10 Greenham Common

Location: Greenham Common - Western Enclosure wk 2025-44

Session: 31/10/2025 07:40 to 10:45hrs

Present: IW,JL,KMB.

Weather: overcast, occasional rain spotting, cool colder later.

Nets: 48metres 3 Rides, up from 08:15 to 10:45 hrs.

Lures audio: (BC-CC-FC-GC),(FF-RE),(YB),(SK-LR), intermittently.

Notes: Conditions only just suitable for ringing. It was very blustery with a strong southerly wind that affected the nets significantly. Redwings were on the move most of the morning in parties up to 50 or so flying south. Some deflected down around and in the enclosure, called in by the audio, none netted unfortunately. Last years matching visit had similar numbers and the weather was calm but cold; we did ring a Redwing though.

Recaptures: (00) 

Sightings: Kestrels are scarce at this end of the common. A flock of Teal flew quite high north. Weather conditions were poor including low light levels and there were some brown jobs over unrecognised, We finished a little early due to the increasing wind speed and the arrival of dark low rain clouds. Not many Jackdaws today probably disturbed by film crews setting up in and around the bunkers.

28/10 Greenham Common

Location: Greenham Common - Western Enclosure wk 2025-44

Session: 28/10/2025 07:40 to 11:15hrs

Present: IW,JL,KMB.

Weather: sunny bright, breezy, cool.

Nets: 48metres 3 Rides, up from 08:15 to 10:45 hrs

Lures audio: (BC-CC-FC-GC),(FF-RE-ST),(YB),(SK-LR), intermittently.

Notes: A bit of a messy start this session first I had to walk back home (it’s quicker than driving) because I had forgotten the mist net poles. Then one of the nets got tangled near the loops as it came out of the bag; think we made it worse before we finally untangled it. 14 birds is quite good for the time of year as migration usually tales off from now on, also the weather becomes more unsettled so ringing opportunities become erratic. Seems to be a lot of Goldcrest about this year. We’ve ringed 67 here so far, we have a way to go to match the best years when 105 were ringed in 2017 and 97 in 2016.

Recaptures: (00)

Sightings: As I arrived IW said look at those three birds in the nearby Birch tree. As I looked and walked closer they flew off; three Common Crossbill a male and two females. but I didn’t get good views unfortunately. Apparently they had first perched in the tree by where I park my car just near where IW was standing. As at the Greenham Feeder last Sunday there was a good movement of Woodpigeon south early in the session. Two Swallows flew North, also a flock of 10 Goldfinch flew around. Not much else moving about otherwise apart from the usual Jackdaw flocks. 

26/10 Greenham Common

Location: Greenham Common Estovers Feeder

Session: 26/10/2025 07:30 to 11:45.hrs

Present: JL,JHW,IW,KMB.

Weather: bright sunny early - clouding over late in session, light breeze - stronger later, cold.

Nets: 18+18M feeder nets,18+18+18M scrub nets up from 08:00 to 11:00hrs.

Lures (audio): (BC-CC-FC-GC),(FF-RE),(SK-LR) intermittently.

           (Feeder): niger feeder, sunflower hearts, peanuts.

Notes: We started operations of our winter feeders today. Until this winter we have operated three winter feeders, at Bagnor Cress Beds, Snelsmore Common-Carpark and Greenham Common-Estovers. We recently made the very difficult decision to stop the Bagnor Feeder after 40 years of continuous operation (Started Winter 1985/86). It’s all part of the involuntary slowing down that comes with advancing years.

We were very busy today at the Estovers Feeder and spent the whole 4+ hour period extracting and processing the birds without a pause. At the end of the session, we had a welcome interlude – a quick coffee courtesy of Jon’s coffee machine.

It is interesting to compare this visit with last year’s matching visit in that the difference appears to be the number of Blue Tits 44 as against the 4 of last winter’s matching visit. This perhaps indicates that Blue Tit survival post fledging has been good this summer; 41 of the 44 were this years 1st winter birds. Also, it seems that there are more Goldfinch coming to this feeder and a few Greenfinch, and we are hopeful that we might get more finches coming as in pre 2019/20 winters. It will be interesting to see how we do at the Snelsmore feeder where lately the food uptake has noticeably dropped and there are very few birds queuing to come in when the feeders are replenished.

Recaptures: (00) 

Sightings: The first large-ish Woodpigeon flock we have seen so far this winter flew west. Nice to

see the Kestrel is still present here. Is the Blackcap a late summering bird or an incoming winter

migrant I wonder! Good to see good numbers of finches at and around the feeder.