September - week 3 (garden ringing), and another A ringer in LRGp.

On Saturday 12th, Peter and Alan J were first up. The catching was steady throughout, to end the session on 39 + (11). They caught decent numbers of Chiffchaff and Siskin, but the star bird was a Willow Tit (our first since 2016). Blackcap numbers were a bit disappointing (contra to recent catches at Goldcliff). Peter continued checking the nets/ringing, while Alan joined Ron, Carlton and Jerry (mid morning) for some willow cutting at one of our reedbed sites. They made a decent start on one very large clump, before the chain jumped the bar, and cutting came to an end. But there was still another hour or so of clearing up to do. Fortunately, the water level had dropped a bit in the last few weeks, so it was just a question of getting splashed, rather than getting soaked !!.

Photo by Alan

On Monday, Jerry's session had weather conditions which weren't the best, with mist until 09.00 and sunny thereafter. His catch was just 12 + (2), but half were Blackcap, and included a control (bird ringed somewhere else). At least he was able to get on with some small maintenance tasks. Also on Monday Peter was notified by the BTO that his (long overdue) A Licence application had been successful. During the course of the last few years, he has increased his ringing activity, found the time to "drag" the Group into the DemOn era, developed our blog, and has created a number of data related spreadsheets - most of which have links on the blog.

Peter and Alan J were back on Wednesday in similar conditions to Monday, and just when they were thinking of packing up (at about 12, with c20 birds having been caught), it started to pick up. They ended a couple of hours later on 38 + (5), which incl our first (7) Lesser Redpoll of the year. Later in the afternoon, Carlton and Jerry arrived for another couple of hours of willow cutting in rb2.

On Friday it was Andy's turn, after a delayed start, conditions were not very helpful, with moderate breeze and full sun on most of the nets. At lunchtime, Jerry took over, after having had an hour dragging out some of the cut willow from rb2. The session produced just 17 + (3), mainly during Andy's time. 

Peter, Alan J (and Ted) were back on Saturday, to complete a week of decent coverage. They were joined later in the morning by George and Jerry, to complete the willow clearance in rb2 (before the water level rises), and to start work on replacing the stile at the hut, with a gate. Despite breezy/sunny conditions, ringing continued until mid afternoon, and ended on a very respectable 47 + (7), which included 18 Siskin. Readers will notice that all three of Peter/Alan's catches far exceeded those of the others - any ideas of the reasons behind this would be helpful.

The species mix for the week was - Wren 3 + (4), Robin 6 + (4), Dunnock 5, Blackbird 1, Blackcap 21 + (2), Chiffchaff 27 + (3), Goldcrest 11 + (4), Blue Tit 7, Great Tit 7 + (1), Willow Tit 1, Long-tailed Tit 7 + (2), Treecreeper 3 + (1), Nuthatch 1, Bullfinch 6 + (4), Goldfinch 2, Siskin 33 and Lesser Redpoll 12.

Our first Willow Tit since 2016 was a lovely surprise.

Goldcrest LAL520 was ringed by Jeremy at 0940 on 12/09/2019 having been caught in GN4A. It was subsequently recaptured by Peter and Alan at 0950 on 12/09/2020 having been caught in GN4A.