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Gloucestershire Naturalists' Society |
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Gloucestershire Naturalists' Society |
The first visit of the season. We met at 06.00 at the end of Dirty Lane. Overnight heavy rain had left large puddles in the lane, and the rain was still falling from a heavy sky, as the man on the radio remarked: “not a morning to make you jump out of bed”, but jumped we had, and fully loaded with all the equipment to go in for the forthcoming season. Twenty poles in two bundles on the roof of the car, a bag full of freshly cut pegs, the tools necessary to clear the net lanes, and the rucksack with the ringing equipment. With water proofs donned and gear distributed amongst us we set off across the fields, willow warblers singing through the drizzle as we made our way through the ankle deep water, still standing in the fields. By the time we had crossed the second field and arrived at the first net site, the rain had abated.
For a couple of hours the clouds lifted and we enjoyed a beautiful morning. As is often the case here, the only sound of the modern world was when the milking parlour on Colways farm started up, but even that is barely noticeable, when you are surrounded by Ashleworth ham and the birds are singing. A little maintenance was required in a couple of net lanes, a few brambles needed clearing, and some drift wood had to be removed, but otherwise much was as we had left it last October. The most noticeable effects of this past winter’s flood being the uprooting and death of a few of the hedgerow trees, leaving a couple of new gaps in the line. A few ducks were still on the reserve, and a curlew and snipe made brief visits, but otherwise it was the local reed buntings and newly arrived redstarts that were the most noticeable birds, with willow warblers in the background and skylarks providing a continuous backdrop sound. A Cuckoo briefly announced it’s presence, but little else was in evidence this morning.
The result of the mist netting was a typical catch for mid April, with 18 birds being handled, five of which were Reed Buntings. A few migrants were caught: a Willow warbler, a Chiffchaff, and an early Sedge warbler, which had obligingly sung briefly. This visit was mainly to get equipment in place for the main visits which commence at the beginning of May. We always operate the nets from dawn to 10.00, and today was no exception. The 10.00 finish being arrived at by the fact that most bird activity seems to be over by this time and very few birds are caught later. As the season progresses our starts get earlier and earlier!
During the winter I had put nest boxes up in some parts of the reserve, and following the ringing session, two of us went round twenty of the boxes to monitor and record the progress of the nesting birds. The occupied boxes had Blue and GreaT Tit nests in at various stages from Moss bases ¼ finished building, up to complete nests lined with pheasant feathers and the first few eggs in. The most eggs found were three, and as is the habit with tits the eggs were covered by moss. As we worked our way through Meerend Thicket, our first Blackcap of the year sang. Just as we were leaving a few Swallows and House martins passed us, skimming over the tree tops.
An introduction to the Ashleworth ringing programme can be found here.
The first of Mervyn's reports covering the first visit on 18th April 2004 can be found here.
The report covering the visit on 2nd May 2004 can be found here.
The report covering the visit on 9th May 2004 can be found here.
The report covering the visit on 23rd May 2004 can be found here.
The report covering the visit on 4th June 2004 can be found here.
The report covering the visit on 13th June 2004 can be found here.
The report covering the visit on 26th June 2004 can be found here.
The report covering the visits during July 2004 can be found here.
The report covering the visits on 5th August 2004 can be found here.
The report covering the visits on 15th August 2004 can be found here.
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