15/08 Greenham Common

Location: Greenham Common Western Enclosure (wk33)
Session: 15/08/2023 07:45 to 11:00hrs

Beware of violent Blue Tits

Notes: About 40% of the capture was of Blue Tit that included one of this years pulli from Peaked Hill; we get few re-traps from this nest box group. You get use to the pain from Blue Tit pecks however one extra painful peck today actually broke the skin on the underside of the tip of my thumb. Otherwise, a steady flow of birds to process through the morning. None of the scarce migrant species of last year’s matching visit though. Hopefully we will get something interesting soon this year. The BTO ringing web portal was down this morning and I was not able to put in any fat scorces when it came up again which is a bit of a bind.

Present: JL,IW,KMB
Weather: bright sunny, warm, calm breezy later
Nets: 48metres 3 Rides, 18M, 18M and 12M up from 08:00 to 10:30hrs
Lures: (BC-CC-WW-GW-WH-LW-GC-FC), (W-WC-SF-RZ-TP), GH, RT intermittently.

Recaptures: (01)

Blue Tit                      ringed: 29/05/2023 A pulli from Nest Box PK32 about 1Km away

Sightings: Still a good number of Swift drifting south, also a few Swallow and a couple of House Martin. One of the Ravens flew east-northeast very high; ID due to it croaking several times. A Rook flew along the treeline east. Only got a fleeting glimpse of the Siver-washed Fritillary as it flew passed the car. IW went looking for it and found the Grayling instead. A lot of Brown Hawkers out on the heath as I drove back to the Gate off the common by the Control Tower.