A reccie of the common on the29th September showed that the fire that had ravaged the common during the summer had spread a considerable distance, from the railway line, across the common and also crossing the road, burning trees and vegetation between the Wentworth and Sunningdale golf courses. A favourite area that becomes partly flooded in winter had been burnt through and the flames had even reached to within metres of another area that has proved good in the past.
Access for bird ringing has become more limited over the past year or so, but we are now within the dates when ringing is permitted and thankfully Chris retains his permission to ring, although we are no longer part of our previous ringing group. We walked a very limited amount of kit on site and erected three nets. We have always had the arrangement that vehicles are not allowed on site to protect the common, although in light of that it did seem odd that various vehicles were on site and a marque erected to facilitate a week of filming The Witcher.
It was clear that there were fewer birds around than when we had conducted our reccie earlier, possibly due to the weather or perhaps due to the filming activities that were occurring over by the railway line.
For our efforts the catch was as follows
Total: 55
Meadow Pipit - 2
Chiffchaff - 1
Goldcrest - 1
Lesser Redpoll - 51