21/10 Greenham Common

Location: Greenham Common - Western Enclosure wk 2025-43

Session: 21/10/2025 07:40 to 11:00hrs

Present: IW,JL.

Weather: sunny periods, breezy, cool.

Nets: 48metres 3 Rides, up from 08:00 to 10:30 hrs

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

We are in the main passage period for Goldcrests with week 43 the peak week and 11 is quite good for one visit, we intend making another visit this coming Friday, so there should be more. These birds are probably wintering birds from northern Europe. On the 2nd Nov 2016 we re-captured a male Goldcrest that had been ringed at Rekeland, Sukndal, Rogaland, Norway on the  4th October 2016 - 915km in 29 days and it weighed about the same as a 50p; remarkable little birds.

Notes: Goldcrest made up most of today’s capture. We did get passing interest to the audio from Redpoll and Siskin but little interest from Redwings and two Fieldfare appeared in a small birch tree near the car presumably called in by the audio but then disappeared unfortunately. 

Recaptures: (00)

Sightings: Fairly quiet with few birds moving around the heath. My first Fieldfares of the year and the first I’ve heard of around Newbury. Merlin picked up a Firecrest in or near the enclosure at nets up, but it maybe had moved off, before we finished putting the nets up. Four Chaffinch flew west with possibly another three or four in the same direction later but to far away to be sure; rare birds on the common these days.