"Acorn Woodland" (visit 4)

I used to have a company called that, but this refers to the young wood in Bucks that we are surveying from time to time. The acorns on the 15 year old oaks are coming along nicely and are tempting a few birds. When we set off we had no idea of the catch we would get today.

"Who are you staring at?"

We put up the first net (1) at the end of the Hawthorn/Blackthorn hedge where it meets the laid hedge. This is on the northernmost east-west ride. It was one of our most sucessful Chiffchaff catching points. It intercepts the birds as they cross over into some Willows. The next net (2) we put up half way up this ride, where a central ride starts; the young oaks here nearly touch across the open space. We managed to put a further four nets up before starting extraction; two (3&4) at the end of the above cross-ride and two (5&6) on the eastern end of the main ride.

On our way back, net 3 was "dripping" with a family party of 16 Long-tailed Bushtits and a other birds. The 'Lotti's' were all re-traps (already ringed by us on a previous visit). Net 2 produced 3 Jays; they were unringed and turned out to be all adult. We assumed (at the time) that they were the local birds.

The first of the adult Jays (wing 188, wt. 172g)

A tape lure was left running at net 2 while we processed this first lot of birds.On our return, there was another Jay in the net (2) and four Goldcrests, lured in as it was their song coming from the speaker. We also extracted Robins, a Wren, a couple of Blackbirds, a group of Bullfinches and assorted tits from the other nets and then two more Goldcrests from net 2 on our way back.

  

Male Goldcrest - except for extreme tail shapes, we age all birds as "2's"

 

We then went out once more and this time we caught a very mixed bag. By now it was natural to see a couple of Jays dangling in the nets. We also picked up our second Marsh Tit of the day, but this one already had a ring on it. It eventually came time to call it a day. Time was pressing on and there were appointments to keep. On out take down round, the main interest was another family party of Bushtits, this one consisting of eight new birds.

This was our biggest catch so far at this site; 12 species, 77 birds of which 21 were ringed on previous visits.

Jay - 9

Goldcrest - 9

Long-tailed Bushtit - 9 (16)

Blue Tit - 10 (2)

Great Tit - 4 (1)

Marsh Tit - 1 (1)

Wren - 1 (1)

Blackbird - 3

Robin - 3

Dunnock - 1

Chaffinch - 2

Bullfinch - 3

All nine Jays were adults. With so many today, and not having caught any of the residents before, we wondered if these birds were "fresh in", possibly from the continent, and were hungry. Hence our phenomenal catch? [2 birds did drop acorns in the nets]. Damage limitation procedures were in place, but neither of us came away unscathed!

Our next visit will comprise an afternoon and a morning session, back to back, at the beginning of next month.