Chobham Common - 8th October 2017

Now that warbler season has all but finished we thought that the common would be worth a go. We were joined by WA and LON who haven't been out for a while due to foreign travel during the second half of September.

Our three primary targets were Redpoll, Goldcrest and Meadow Pipit with of course the usual effort to monitor the population of Dartford Warblers.

We put up three singles, a V configuration and a double and were catching before the last nets were up. The Redpolls came in consistently with a couple of waves of Goldcrest and some interest from the Meadow Pipits resulting in just three birds in the nets. We got one Dartford Warbler and there was also a tit flock that helped vary the species diversity.

It was a busy session and it was good to see that our trainees have attained the stage where there is no 'rustiness' after a few weeks away from ringing and extraction.

Age 3 Lesser Redpoll

Age 3 Meadow Pipit

3M Reed Bunting

We were puzzled to capture a Lesser Redpoll bearing a group ring S444913. At first we thought that another group member may have ringed the bird in the preceeding days, but on liaising with our group's rings officer it transpired that the bird had been ringed at Wraysbury, 9km away, earlier that same morning. Their recorded time was 8:55am with the bird processed by us at midday. 

Totals: 117 (1)

Meadow Pipit - 3
Dartford Warbler - 1
Chiffchaff - 2
Goldcrest - 14
Long-tailed Tit - 6
Blue Tit - 4
Great Tit - 2
Lesser Redpoll -  84 (1)
Reed Bunting - 1