Decmember farmland session

On a very chilly Friday evening the nets were erected around the seed strip on Eastfield Farm in Lound, in readiness for an early start on Saturday morning. By the time Paul and Rob arrived I had already walked up the track and started unfurling the line of 60's between the seed strip and hedgerow and once all nets were open we decided to try and walk up some Skylarks which had been roosting in the adjacent field left to stubble. A few birds got up but were nowhere near to finding the single shelf that Paul and I had valiantly struggled with the previous evening.

A cool crisp start was hoped to have got birds using the seed strip early but with a slightly stronger south westerly than predicted together with a quickly rising sun the session got off to a slow start with many birds clearly being aware of the well lit 'wall' of nets. A few walks through the strip saw a good number of birds fly out but many rose above the nets and sat in the top of the hedgerow behind.

On a positive side the relaxed pace allowed Paul's trainees, Rob and Richard, to get to grips with ageing and sexing winter Reed Buntings and Yellowhammers as well as gaining some valuable extraction practice.

Male Reed Bunting 

Male Yellowhammer

The number of birds caught was clearly disappointing when considering the extra nets deployed in comparison to my preliminary visit. There were, however, quite a lot of birds using the strip and other strips and stubble in the neighbouring fields. The highly mobile Yellowhammer flock was numbering 30-40 although tending to favour another seed strip nearby. A number of goldfinches were feeding in a thin strip featuring an abundance of chicory and may be targeted in future visits.

Sadly the results of the second visit to the seed strip were hampered by the weather conditions with a steadily building breeze and bright sunshine rendering the nets highly visible. All, however, was not lost with two out of four target species being trapped for the project as well as an unexpected bonus in the form of a smart male Blackcap.

Totals - 18 new, (6) retraps with 2 controls
Wren - 1
Robin - (3) including control X547854
Blackbird - (1) control originally ringed in Paul's Burgh Castle garden
Song Thrush - 1
Blackcap - 1
Blue Tit - (1)
Chaffinch - 3
Yellowhammer - 3
Reed Bunting - 9, (1)

Controlled Robin