Meisen Wood: Woowa!

Date: 22-4-2018

Nets: 105m – new summer configuration

Music: none

Weather: slight breeze, 15°C at start rising to 27°C at end

Ringers: CS and EB

Species	Ringed	Re-trapped	Total
Blackcap	4	2	6
Blue Tit		1	1
Chaffinch	2	3	5
Firecrest	1		1
Long-tailed Tit		1	1
Pied Flycatcher	2	2	4
Robin		2	2
Song Thrush		1	1
Willow Warbler	1		1
Wood Warbler	1		1
Wren	1		1
Total	12	12	24

Wow!  What a change!  So quick! They were CS’s response on returning to Meisen Wood after a week away visiting friends. 

In that brief interlude life had vigorously burst forth from its winter dormancy into an eruption of colour.  Deciduous trees and bushes had become dressed in freshly emergent light green leaves; several trees were now draped with white and pink blossoms; the meadow had been transformed from dull brown to a vibrant green liberally sprinkled with numerous colourful flowers; and the air was buzzing with insects.  This sudden flourishing of life, this great release of latent energy, contributes to making spring an exciting season.

Setting the nets in the pre-dawn light to the accompaniment of an increasingly loud dawn chorus was a delight and accentuated our sense of anticipation of a good morning’s ringing.  Our anticipation was not for a large catch but for a session that would hopefully include some returning, and passage migrants.  We were not disappointed.

At supper, last night, we had chatted about the new net configuration which has been forced upon us by last winter’s storms toppling eighteen pine trees.  Potentially a positive consequence of this aeolian destruction has been the creation of some new open areas; such changes are a natural part of woodland ecology and thus would we experience, in the short and long term, a change in the species we catch.  This is something we look forward to monitoring.  We also talked about Wood Warbler saying we normally hear a few singing and calling in the canopy from about now to mid-May when they disappear and never deign to enter our nets.

Well blow us down there was irony in the first net round!  In a net set by a newly opened area, in the lowest pocket was a Wood Warbler!  A cracking little bird with a mossy-green back, a beautiful yellow throat and upper breast sharply delineated from a pure white belly.  Pure delight, what shall we try and wish for next!?

Today’s captures included four Pied Flycatchers: two new and two re-traps.  The two re-traps were from last weekend when we had squeezed in a session before CS went off travelling.  During that session we had also put up six additional nest boxes as part of a cunning plan to encourage more Pied Flycatchers to breed in Meisen Wood.  The thinking behind the scheming being: hopefully by now the resident Blue and Great Tits have established their territories and claimed the nest boxes they’ll use.  Therefore the new nest boxes will be available for arriving Pied Flycatchers.  Sounds great in theory but like most of our cunning plans for birds will it do it’s usual, and fail?  O, um……; we’ll see!

The Pied Flycatchers and the Song Thrush have arrived late this year.  Normally we catch our first Song Thrush in late March.  And in the last three years have consistently caught our first Pied Flycatcher on April 6^th in the same net – there’s consistency for you.  Late seems to be this spring’s theme.  So far we have seen few swallows and no House or Sand Martins.  Similarly in the three local areas where we monitor breeding Curlew, Lapwing and Black-tailed Godwit they all arrived late and in lower, than normal, numbers.  The Black-tailed Godwits are only just arriving and starting their attractive display flights.  Hopefully this is a consequence of poor weather and not some calamitous event at their wintering, or passage, areas!

The Song Thrush maybe late but it seemed to be ready to breed as, to quote EB, “It’s got a stonking great CP!”  Translation: it has a large cloacal protuberance.  A cloacal protuberance is not quite a penis though it is the avian equivalent in that it is used in insemination.  Cloacal protuberance size varies with species and seasonally: large during the breeding season; much reduced, almost absent, when not required, in the winter.

A final tally of 24 birds is typical for Meisen Wood in late April.  This number will decline further, such that by mid-July a15 bird session will be considered to be good.  Is it worth the effort? Yes, as it is an integral part of population and ecological monitoring to which bird ringing contributes.  Such a decline is natural in woodland where the birds require quite large territories to secure their needs, and those of their young; food particularly is not as abundant, unlike in reed-beds where there are multiple hatches of insects.  But come late summer with breeding completed and the trees’ fruiting the bird numbers will increase again.

Chris