March of the ....Swallows

The film 'March of the Penguins' showed the amazing journey undertaken by Emperor Penguins as they walk to their breeding grounds in the Antarctic. I admit that Swallows are quite different from Penguins - not least the fact that they can fly, but they are black(ish) and white(ish) and they both face many dangers as they try to find a way of surviving in a harsh world. The halcyon days of summer are over, our summer visitors are faced with tough choices about how long to remain in the UK before setting of on the long route south to Africa. If they leave it too late before beginning their migration, there is increased risk of bad weather while food supplies may become more limited.

At Marston Vale Millennium Country Park there are still good numbers of Swallows, Sand Martins and House Martins feeding over the lakes and reed beds. The reed beds also still hold some Reed Warblers and Sedge Warblers.

Last night Mike and I had another session attempting to ring Swallows as they went in to roost. The weather forecast wasn't promising but it was a really pleasant evening (though a touch cool) with a great sunset.

Totals ringed were:

• 2 Reed Warbler


• 2 Sedge Warbler


• 5 Sand Martin (including 2 adults)


• 11 Swallow(all juveniles)
  Total 20

A group of 10-12 Yellow Wagtails also roosted in the reed beds overnight.

The Sedge and Reed Warblers seem to have a different migration strategy. The Sedge Warblers are getting very heavy, as they are building up fat reserves to give them the energy for lengthy flights. The Reed Warblers haven't put on much extra weight, so the assumption is that they will make shorter 'hops' in their southward migration.

Ringing at Marston Vale Millennium Country Park

Today we ringed at the Marston Vale Millennium Country Park, Marston Moretaine, for the first time. The Country Park has been created on the site of former clay workings and has an area of approximately 250 hectares (617 acres) and is run by the Marston Vale Trust. The Park consists of areas of water (Stewartby Lake,The Pillinge and some smaller pools as well as a network of ditches and Elstow Brook which runs through the site), reedbeds and areas of established and more recently planted woodland. The Forest Centre includes the Lakeside Bar and Cafe, a gift shop, displays of information, a play area, cycle hire and toilets.

The aim of our work at the Country Park will be to find out more about the bird life of the area. This will be achieved by the recording what is ringed plus details of any wildlife and plants seen.

The weather was better that the forecast, but was not very favourable for ringing today - blustery wind with occasional showers, but the total of 3 Reed Warblers (see photo top left) and 2 Sedge Warblers (see photo lower rights) was a good start. Other sightings included a Sparrowhawk overhead carrying food, a family party of Long-tailed Tits, 2 Little Egrets, 3 Lapwings, Reed Buntings still singing, along with Meadow Brown and Speckled Wood butterflies. We had packed up just before the heavy rain shower came through!

Thank you to Roger and Sue for your help today.

Coldplay live from Glastonbury or an early start on Sunday?

Much as I love birdwatching and bird ringing, one problem at this time of the year is the need to get up early. Birds are naturally most active shortly after dawn; as the day hots up they become much less active.

So while many ringers in the group were out early this morning for Constant Effort Scheme visits, I have to admit that I had a lie in after watching a great performance by Coldplay at Glastonbury last night. A short visit to Harrold-Odell Country Park resulted in a catch of just two birds:

• the control Reed Warbler, first caught on 12th June, was retrapped. From the state of the brood patch, this is obviously a female. Having been caught twice at the Country Park it can safely be taken to be breeding bird.



• the other bird caught was an adult Dunnock, which was duly ringed.

Reed Buntings, Reed Warblers and Chiffchaffs were singing in the area. There were still many Common Spotted Orchids and a fresh Southern Marsh Orchid. Large numbers of damselflies were on the wing, with many mating.

Later Roger and Sue joined me to ring 4 broods of Swallows in Thurleigh - a total of 15 pulli today, bringing the total of Swallow pulli ringed this year to 69.

Other recent ringing includes 18 tits (mix of Blue and Great, some juveniles and some adults) at Bromham Mill yesterday, plus one Chaffinch.

Earlier in the week a visit to The Emplins in Gamlingay resulted in two adult Swifts retrapped (both had been ringed in July 2008 as adults) and three new adults ringed. 35 Common Tern chicks were ringed on an island in a lake near Bedford on Monday evening. Two Lapwing chicks were ringed last weekend.

[The photo is of a Blue Tit ringed at Bromham Mill on Saturday 25th June]

Harrold-Odell Country Park today - low in numbers, high in quality

I had planned to do the 2nd visit for the BTO's Breeding Bird Survey that I do each year at Thurleigh, but as it was cool and not at all summer-like, I decided to go ringing instead. The last-minute choice was Harrold-Odell Country Park, which we visited on Monday 30th May in the drizzle. Today started off better, but lo and behold the rain drops started and there was a light drizzle for most of the morning. Under the trees it was still suitable for ringing.

8 birds caught, the highlights being a control Reed Warbler and a Kingfisher.






Photos from the top are:
1) Ringing in the Bird Hide by the lake
2) With the Kingfisher
3) Kingfisher again...
4) Garden Warbler
5) The control Reed Warbler

The full list of birds caught was:

• Kingfisher - 1 ringed


• Reed Warbler - 2 ringed + 1 control


• Garden Warbler - 2 ringed


• Blackcap - 1 ringed


• Bullfinch - 1 ringed

The carrot and coriander soup in the cafe after ringing was most welcome.

Thank you to Richard and Alan for their help (and to Richard for taking the photos).

Three quarters of the way

CES Number 9 completed; fortunately there was alot of cloud cover and a light breeze. Later in the day it turned very humid and the wind picked up. So what did we catch today?

A peculiar blend to say the least. Early doors, we had a fly-past as 2 Little Egberts left the roost.


First up - a 3JP Chiffie.

During the morning we extracted 26 birds from the standard nets and 13 from a single 60' we set in an adjoining compartment. Combined, I make that 33 new birds with just 4 re-traps of 15 species. A good training day with this spread.


Male (rt) and female 3J Chaffinch.


2CY male Bullfinch.

It was to be an AA day - on one third of the birds. Just eight birds were adults; the 5 new ones were a male Dunnock (where did he spring from?), male Blackcap, nesting female Song Thrush, female Chiffie and a 6M Bullfinch and 3 of the 4 retraps were moulting Blackbirds.


3JP Chiffchaff showing GC moult


RARE - Our third Willie of the season!


Mrs Song Thrush

So here is the full listing:
Blue Tit 1
Great Tit 3 (1)
Chiffchaff 5
Willow Warbler 1
Blackcap 3
Garden Warbler 1
Whitethroat 2
Reed Warbler 5
Wren 5
Blackbird (3)
Song Thrush 1
Robin 2
Dunnock 3
Chaffinch 2
Bullfinch 1

We don't normally catch as many young Reed Warblers here in this patch so that means they are dispersing and we'll have to visit our tinzie-winzie reed bed in the week for some more.

An early tickle

An early start at the crescent before the winds got up. Not very many dog walkers around this morning. However, there has been a blue-green algal bloom in the main lake for a week or so. These winds will shift it by creating turbulence and chilling the water temperature.

First up was my first moulting Blackcap of the year, a male with two primaries dropped on both wings. The main thrust here is always the Reed Warblers. We can't get into this small reedbed as the sub-strate is very unstable (an old silt trap) if you continually walk on it. Therefore we suffice with ringing the perimeter paths. Today it was 15 birds in total, with 7 retrap adult Reed Warblers and 3 juveniles.

With the absence of dogs, some of the 100 or so swans came to the beach, (bottom right corner of main lake - see map), to haul out and do a bit of 'toiletry' and 'have a natter'.

"Here we come"
"Now for a good scratch"


Abraded plumage of an adult Reed Warbler
Fresh plumaged juvenile Reed Warbler.
Juvenile Blackcap showing soft body feathers.

The end tally was 15 birds including 8 recaptures:
Great Tit 1 juv
Garden Warbler 1 juv
Black cap 1 juv (1)
Sedge Warbler 1 juv
Reed Warbler 3 (7)
One of the male Reed Warblers was ringed as a 6M (hatched 2 years earlier or before) in 2006, making it at least 6 years old and another one was a 6Female when caught in 2007. This year to date, I have caught 17 males, 10 females, 5 unsexed (poss females as they were caught early on) and 3 juveniles at this tiny reed bed.

Today's surprise extraction ...
... only the second this year over the whole site.

Quick 'n easy

Today, Ed and I set up at the "crescent" reed-bed; that is, on two sides, not through the middle.



Above: The 'ringing station'.

Not a bad morning 'cos we were all done by 9 o'clock.

20 birds in 3 hours is, for us, a good result. As 12 of the birds were Reed Warblers (see photograph below), extraction was "a piece of cake".



Many of the female reed warblers were showing signs of being in egg. Going by this evidence, it will be a short while yet before we catch the first fledgeling Reed Warblers.

Other birds around were -
Mr & Mrs Swan (she's "orange 500") and their 6 cygnets (that we'll deal with when they're a bit bigger),

a Kingfisher over the net here and a Turtle Dove purring away in this willow alongside the net,

and a very vocal Reed Bunting that eventually got fed up singing to itself and took the wrong turning for breakfast/elevenses.

In all, we caught just 8 new birds and a dozen re-traps, of which 2 were 'new-for-year'.
Chiffchaff 1 - a 2CY female nesting nearby
Blackcap (1) - a male caught as a juvenile in June 2008
Reed Warbler (today's target) 5 (7) - oldest was a 2006 bird
Wren 1 - a new 2CY female
Dunnock 1 (2)
Chaffinch (1) - a 2CY male
Reed Bunting (1) - the 2CY male.



Above & Below: These photographs show the same male blackcap.

A brood patch is where adults loose their 'belly' feathers and blood vessels engorge and come to the surface of the skin to enable heat transfer from the adults to eggs & young.

In the photograph below, the male blackcap is shown with a false brood patch. Sometimes, males are known to help with the 'sitting on the nest' duties. In other species where male and female are hard to tell apart, the false brood patch of a male can easily be mistaken for the brood patch of a female (such as the Garden Warbler). This was an easy one though!



In the immediate area, birds that we saw making use of the main lake-side airspace included Greylag (uncommon here), Common Tern (starting to fish more earnestly; family duties?), Swift (much fewer than last week-end), Cuckoo, Gt. Spotted Woodpecker, Common Whitethroat, a party of Long-tailed Bushtits (working their way over the nesting Reed Warblers) and a pair of Goldfinch.