Meisen Wood: July Swiftly

Nets: 120m

Weather: hot

Ringers: CS and EB

Species	New Adult	New Juv	Re-trap Adult	Re-trap Juv	Total
Blackbird		1			1
Blackcap		4	2		6
Blue Tit		5		6	11
Coal Tit		1			1
Dunnock			1		1
Firecrest		1			1
G S Woodpecker		1			1
Goldcrest	1	5		1	7
Great Tit	1	12	2	12	27
Marsh Tit		2			2
Nuthatch		2			2
Pied Flycatcher	2				2
Robin	1	4			5
Short T Treecreeper		1			1
Willow Warbler	2	1			3
Wren		5			5
Total	7	45	5	19	76

With CS away auk ringing in Scotland at the start of the month, July’s efforts have been much reduced.  Nonetheless the two sessions have been pleasingly productive and interesting.  Unsurprisingly 54% of captures have been of Meisen Wood’s eponymous birds, a much better figure than last year.  There were also some surprises in the captures; the highlights are:

1.                  Of the re-trap Great Tit and Blue Tit juveniles 22% were originally ringed as pulli.

2.                  A re-trapped adult male Blackcap was originally ringed in late spring 2016 and has been  captured at least once a year since.

3.                  Sadly Song Thrush are absent from the list despite several singing/calling in the now much diminished dawn chorus.  They arrived late and we have only caught 2 adults so far this year.

4.                  Blackbird and Robin juveniles are notable by their near absence.  Many male Blackbirds are flying around neurotically clucking but have not been observed carrying food.

5.                  The three Willow Warblers was a pleasant surprise; that number is almost equal to a typical year’s total.  Willow Warblers are heard during the spring passage but, for whatever reason, they don’t seem to hang out here for the breeding season.

6.                  The two adult Pied Flycatchers took us by surprise!  Previously we had never caught Pied Flycatchers after the local breeders have departed; occasionally a few may be seen in late August.  These two had nearly completed their moult: with the male having a moult score of 42, and the female’s was 43 and her brood patch (assuming she had, had one) was completely feathered over.

 Pied Flycatcher

Moving swiftly aside, in July we often indulge in going out for breakfast in our local town.  There a cobbled market/church square is surrounded by a variety of shops, a church, a row of cafes, corbelled in the Dutch style, all with tables arranged outside below a magnificent line of mature linden trees.  One of these cafes offers, at a reasonable price, an all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet.  And the church is home, for the summer, to a colony of Swifts.

Thus while we gourmands gorged, we delighted in watching and listening to the Swifts’ deft aerial antics.  In watching a band of 15 to 20 Swifts speeding and shrieking at breakneck speed close to the linden trees, then with inertia-less grace tightly turning, as a unit, narrowly missing the church’s roof it is nigh on impossible to avoid making anthropomorphisms.  This, sometimes, can be positive for they can provoke questions that delve into the beautiful mysteries of life: how many family units are in a flock of twenty; is their shrieking a form of communication, of commands, or is it simply an expression of joy?  How much incest, if any, exists within the colony? Are these tight, twisting Swift groups playing, an essential component in animal learning, such that these juveniles gain the flying agility necessary for their survival?  Paying the bill we watched the Swifts knowing they will soon be gone; their departure, by months’ end, a herald to the closing of summer.

Chris