22/08 Greenham Common Western Enclosure

Location: Greenham Common Western Enclosure

Session: 22-Aug-2016 06:15 to 11:20hrs

Headlines: Tomorrow(Tues) looks to be the best day of the week but I have an appointment to keep so I decided to have ago today despite the blustery weather. We tried a couple of cut down three shelf nets to see if the lower height would be less affected by the wind; jury still out on if they are. It was slow at first; only five birds by 08:00hrs, one was a Green Woodpecker. There have been lots of these flying about recently so it was inevitable that we would capture one. Yesterday a birding visit to the enclosure, in very windy weather, found a Redstart calling so we were pleased to find one in the net on the next round with a couple of sylvia warblers and a phylos. Another Green Woodpecker followed with more Sylvia and phylos warblers and an out of habitat Sedge Warbler; the second of the season here. After this it went quiet for about an hour with just three birds captured. We found another female Redstart in the scrub on a walk around to the south and late in the session we were fortunate to capture it together with sadly a real rarity these days, a Chaffinch. One we could ring for a change (no grotty foot). No Blackcap  captured is a concern, we only saw one female/juvenile in the north scrub; number should begin to build around now. Not a big capture but some variety and it is good to be able to ring one or two scarce species.

Weather: mostly overcast, warm, blustery, some sunny periods

Present: JL, IW, DL

Nets: 84metres in five rides of 18M, 18M, 12M, 18M (3shelf), 18M (3shelf) up from 06:45 to 10:45hrs.

Lure ( audio): Blackcap, Chiffchaff, Firecrest, Goldcrest, Redstart, Dartford Warbler, Lesser Whitethroat intermittently.

Capture (New/Recapture) 20 (20/0): Chaffinch 1/0, Chiffchaff 2/0, Garden Warbler 2/0, Green Woodpecker 2/0, Redstart 2/0, Robin 1/0, Sedge Warbler 1/0, Whitethroat 1/0, Willow Warbler 8/0

Recaptures: none

Age Range: all 1st CY

 Immature Male Redstart

demarcation between breast colour and throat (bib) separates from the female below

note brown edged greater coverts

 Immature Female Redstart

lighter more washout colouring than male above 

note brown edged greater coverts.

Immature female showing bright tail and brown edged greater coverts and tertials.

 

Sightings 30 Species:  a good birding morning with some activity in the scrub around the enclosure; some of which turned up in the net. Dartford Warbler and Stonechat were quite active but still unable to net any. One bush had at least five Whitethroat in it, unfortunately they did not go into the enclosure. When taking the nets down a raptor flew south that might have been a Marsh Harrier but by the time we could view with our binoculars it was to far away to get enough on it to satisfy ourselves let alone anyone else.

Blackbird 2+ Blackcap 1+ Black-headed Gull 7+ Blue Tit 2+ Carrion Crow 4+ Chaffinch 1+ Chiffchaff 5+ Dartford Warbler 2 Garden Warbler 2+ Goldfinch 10+ Great Spotted Woodpecker 2+ Green Woodpecker 3+ House Martin 2+ Jackdaw 4 Kestrel 2

Linnet 7+ Magpie 3+ Mallard 5 Meadow Pipit 5+ Raven 1 Redstart 2 Robin 1+ Sedge Warbler 1 Stock Dove 1 Stonechat 4+ Swallow 14+ Whitethroat 8+ Willow Warbler 12+ Woodpigeon 15+ Wren 3+