Having put nets up ( three rides had been demolished so not the easiest thing), we met the man who lives right by the entrance and found out that the filming had been for a DC Marvel film and they had been on site for two weeks. That explained the clearance of areas, to accommodate their large vehicles, and included a new access route to the lake - as there had been pontoons used for filming. Apparently, Angelina Jolie has been to the ringing site! On the positive side, this is hopefully a 'one off' and if we clear new rides, we'll be able to continue ringing here. The management has apparently been outsourced, explaining why we can get no response from the old contact.
Later we met the fishing club site manager - apparently he stopped them from removing Mike's long run, had he not, we would have lost a further three rides.
On now to the birds, we set up by the cars as the usual stop is now under all the spoil that had been bulldozed from the access track. We have also lost access to the feed bins! We had seven nets up and caught well all morning. 176 is an impressive tally for us, here, in October but it was definitely a case of too many tits - even 'though one was a control. It is possible that AYD1414, an age 3 Blue Tit has come from Hilfield as they use that alpha prefix, but we are not sure at present whether it is the correct numerical sequence. There were a few other species, quite a lot of Goldcrest and also Great Spotted Woodpecker, Redwing, Jay, Treecreeper, Chaffinch and Coal Tit.
One of 39 new Goldcrest
Coal Tit
Redwing
Chaffinch
Total: 159 (17)
Great Spotted Woodpecker - 1
Redwing - 2
Robin - 1
Dunnock - 1
Chiffchaff - 4
Goldcrest - 39
Long-tailed Tit - 22
Great Tit - 10 (2)
Coal Tit - 0 (1)
Blue Tit - 76 (12)
Jay - 1
Chaffinch - 1
Treecreeper - 1 (1)
The ride for winter finches laid bare
The Redwing 18m no longer has cover around it
and all the cleared vegetation no clogs the Cheeky 12m
A new if rather wide space by the lake.