15/03 Greenham Common

Location: Greenham Common Feeder.

Session: 15/03/2026 07:45 to 11:30hrs

Present:  JHW, IW, JL, CMD, IQ.

Weather: sunny periods, breezy getting stronger towards end of session, cool.

Nets: 6+6M feeder nets + 3no 12M scrub nets up from 08:00 to 11:00hrs.

Lures (Feeder): two sunflower heart feeders and a peanut feeder, also intermittent Redpoll and other Audio in the scrub.

Lesser Redpolls male in front – red tinge to breast and throat, and a more extensive red cap

 than the female (out of focus) in the background.

Notes: Fewer birds coming to the feeder as their attention turns to breeding - some will be returning to the north and maybe Europe very soon. The increasing breeze as the session progressed also affected the nets and thus the capture. Two Lesser Redpoll lured down to the scrub nets using audio calls. We last ringed one here 03/03/2024 and until they began moving south in fewer numbers around 2019 we ringed double figures most winters sometimes triple, maxing at 423 in 2011. The Long-tailed Tits and the Wren were  coming into breeding plumage - CP and BP. Despite the drop in numbers, a good species selection compared to last year’s matching visit. Several Chiffchaff in song in surrounding trees but we couldn’t entice them down unfortunately.

FG = age indeterminate

Recaptures: (05)

Blue Tit ringed: 01/02/2026.

Great Tit ringed: 12/02/2023, 10/03/2024.

Long-tailed Tit ringed: 22/02/2026x2.

Sightings: IW’s list – Strangely no Blackbirds detected, perhaps the individuals present until recently here were winter migrants. Otherwise as with the ringing relatively quiet.