Now that the season is over, I thought that I would look up last year's results and compare them with this. Adults given first, then juvs; 2007 in brackets.
Wren - 14 (5), 18 (17); another good breeding year with very good winter survival.
Dunnock - 11 (13), 7 (10); good adult survival and another poor breeding season (cf 21 juvs in 2005).
Robin - 2 (2), 14 (21); we don't expect to catch many adults but the number of youngsters has dropped back to "normal" after a very good 2007.
Blackbird - 8 (13), 5 (9); again, good adult survival from 2007 to 2008 but the rains seem to have knocked back the number of young.
Song Thrush - 8 (3), 6 (5); this is excellent news! Good survival and good production for the second year running!
Reed Warbler - 10 (11), 8 (6); not a dry scrub bird but showing signs of a good overall year.
Lesser Whitethroat - 3 (1), 2 (3); a job to tell - but there were 2 pairs present this year which there hasn't been for 4 years.
Common Whitethroat - 7 (5), 8 (6); a slight upturn this year after 3 poor years on the run - despite all the wet weather.
Garden Warbler - 10 (12), 6 (16); this is the one species that seems to have had a real knock-back this season.
Blackcap - 23 (25), 28 (37); Doesn't look like a good year but we have been blessed with high numbers for the last 4 years. Juvenile production was hit quite badly, though.
Chiffchaff - 5 (5), 21 (9); an average year for adults but we haven't had such high numbers of juveniles since 2004 (24), the best year ever.
Willow Warbler - 2 (3), 5 (3); another low year all round. Do you remember when adults were in the 20's and juvs. in the 40's? Those days are long gone for southern England.
LT Tit - 1 (2), 6 (6); we never catch many in the CES season - we will have to wait for the autumn totals.
Blue Tit - 8 (4), 7 (8); good adult survival last winter but another bad fledging season, the 4th in a row, corroberated by the nest box results.
Great Tit - 6 (0), 5 (1); no indication is suggested, since CES figures at Priory have always yo-yo-ed and bear no relation to "the truth".
Chaffinch - 1 (2), 0 (1); looks poor
Greenfinch - 2 (12), 3 (9); a very poor - or late - season, probably the latter.
Goldfinch - 0 (5), 9 (10); a positive breeding season. The species has never been abundant in the park as most of the area not under trees is mown grass or water.
Bullfinch - 4 (6), 0 (3); it looks like they have suffered from the incessant damp. This is a species that has always liked the park and has maintained a good presence until now, despite the national fall.
A few other passerines are caught irregularly in low numbers, namely Sedge Warbler, Goldcrest, Marsh Tit, Treecreeper, Magpie, House Sparrow, Lesser Redpoll
... a 3F Wilwa; nice surprise!!
