Low wind, no rain in the forecast - it had to be Chobham. Chris and I hoped that there may be some youngsters about by now and were absolutely right. We used two 12m nets, a two and three panel and used them where we could see that birds tended to move through. This is a labour intensive, low return strategy as we only set nets along pathways or in clearings (so as to avoid disturbing any nesting birds) and try several locations during the session.
We have endorsements to use playback but the densities are now so high that birds all but ignore the songs played.
Between 8am and noon we captured a male Tree Pipit, two juveniles and an adult Dartford Warbler 4M, Z958020, ringed when a 3M on 26th November last year by our trainee LON during a session to target Redwing and Lesser Redpoll.
Chris kept a tally of all the Dartford Warblers seen while on the common and there were probably more than 17 in a relatively small area.
Total: 3 (1)
Tree Pipit - 1
Dartford Warbler - 2 (1)
We have endorsements to use playback but the densities are now so high that birds all but ignore the songs played.
Between 8am and noon we captured a male Tree Pipit, two juveniles and an adult Dartford Warbler 4M, Z958020, ringed when a 3M on 26th November last year by our trainee LON during a session to target Redwing and Lesser Redpoll.
Chris kept a tally of all the Dartford Warblers seen while on the common and there were probably more than 17 in a relatively small area.
Total: 3 (1)
Tree Pipit - 1
Dartford Warbler - 2 (1)