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Gloucestershire Naturalists' Society |
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Gloucestershire Naturalists' Society |
Visit number four of the constant effort season. A 04.25 meet, which will only be “bettered” by the later June visits, but a dry walk across the fields! This because the light breeze we were experiencing hadn’t dropped during the night, so evaporation saved the day. Our youngest ever participant joined us today, and was remarkably wide awake for the time of day, putting the rest of us to shame. It must be nice to sit on shoulders and be carried across to the ringing site.
As with visit three the presence or absence of young birds has a major effect on the catch total, and despite all the talk of global warming, and spring coming earlier, it is my opinion that spring was late this year. Ashleworth is always a late site anyway, so there were still no flushes of young birds to boost our total. We caught the same number of birds as on this visit last year, and the difference in 2003 was that 14 young Blue Tits boosted the total. The catch was 15 new birds, and 16 retraps, of 13 species. Sedge Warblers and Bullfinches topped the catch.
There were some young birds about. Reed Buntings leave their nest quite early and wander through the long grass. We observe the parent birds taking food to them, never to the same spot twice. Three families were busy in this way in the field in front of our base. The local Blackbird family was in the hedge, with the adult birds giving their characteristic call, warning the young of our presence. A call most of us are probably aware of round our gardens at this time of the year, when the barely flying young, still been fed by the adults, end up in all sort of odd situations in the garden. One youngster eventually found his way into one of the nets.
Birds recorded on this trip were: Mallard, Lesser Black-backed gull, Wood Pigeon, Cuckoo, Green Woodpecker, Pheasant, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Skylark, Robin, Redstart, Blackbird, Song Thrush, Dunnock, Wren, Lesser Whitethroat, Whitethroat, Willow Warbler, Linnet, Chaffinch, Reed Bunting, Carrion Crow, Reed Warbler and Treecreeper.
The first of Mervyn's reports covering the visit on 10th April 2005 can be found here.
The report covering the visit on 1st May 2005 can be found here.
The report covering the visit on 15th May 2005 can be found here.
The report covering the visit on 29th May 2005 can be found here.
The report covering the visit on 5th June 2005 can be found here.
The report covering the visit on 18th June 2005 can be found here.
The report covering the visit on 26th June 2005 can be found here.
You can also read about the CES programme at Ashleworth in 2004 here.
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