CES V2 - Thorns, 10/05

Caterpillars of Pale Brindled Beauty (below) and Winter Moth (Dave Buckingham)

A lovely day for ringing; a bit of a ground frost in places, no wind to speak of, bright and sunny and with the vegetation now all out and freshly bright green.

A small team of 2 then 3 managed to process 51 birds of 18 species, 21 of which were retraps, mainly from last year. All birds were adults except Blackbird.

[new/retrap] Wren 0/1, Dunno 2/6, Robin 1/1, Blabi 1/0, Reewa 1/0, Leswh 4/0, White 3/4, Garwa 3/0, Blaca 2/0, Chiff 1/1, Wilwa 0/1 (5th year/+), Lotti 3/0, Bluti 1/1, Greti 1/0, Chaff 3/1, Grefi 3/0, Bullf 0/2, Yelha 1/0.

Many of the Sylvias had reasonable fat scores, suggesting they must still be passing through.

Bingo! Maybe the site is returning to its old glory?

Bargo Red B bar P

Thanks to Geoff Williams and Tom Perrins who e-mailed this one through.


It is 18 months since we last heard of this bird and its 2 'chums', that was at Slimbridge, where we think it likes to spend mid-winter tucked away on the New Grounds. Today it turned up in a different vector - Tamworth, Staffordshire - with 2 'chums'.
Are they on their way back "home", I wonder? We'll find out, perhaps, on 18/19th July.

Recapture history for 1295590
Ringed 24-07-2005 Roxton, Beds [TL1554] - near "The Black Cat(s) A1 round-about" [There are now TWO Black Cats on this round-about!]

Sighted (R) 02-04-2007 Coate Water, Swindon (121km SW, 1yr 252days)
Sighted (NR) 25-05-2007 Cassington GP, nr. Oxford (80km WSW, 1yr 305days)
Sighted (R) 02-11-2007 New Grounds, WWT Slimbridge (151km WSW, 2yrs 101days) [was most likely this bird here in winter 2006/07 also]
Sighted (NR) 09-05-2009 Drayton Bassett pits, nr. Tamworth (107km WNW, 3yrs 289days)

CES V2 - Chalton 09/05

Fortunately the wind had abated slightly, enabling the session to go ahead.

The catch was reasonable with 20 birds of 11 species made up of 12 new and 8 re-traps.
Wren 0/1, Dunno 0/1, Blabi 2/1, Sonth 1/0, Sedwa 3/2, Reewa 1/2, Leswh 1/0 (the first this year here), White 2/0, Blaca 1/0, Lotti 0/1, Chaff 1/0. The oldest bird was a female Sedwa from mid-May 2006.

We await 2 special, 2-panel SF nets; in the meantime we are having to substitute 3-ply, 1.5 inch mesh nets.

CES Va & V1 - Chalton

Extra visit A on 26/4/09
This session produced 18 birds,13 new and 5 retraps from 06-07 and 08.
Dunno 1/1, Robin 1/0, Blabi 1/1, Sedwa 1/1, Reewa 1/0, White 2/0, Chiff 1/1, Bluti 1/0, Greti 0/1, Goldf 2/0, Reebu 2/0.


Main visit V1 done on 03/05/09
Our first full visit produced 17 birds of 11 species. 8 new and 9 retraps as follows:-
Wren 0/1, Dunno 1/1, Blabi 1/0, Sonth 1/1, Sedwa 1/1, White 1/1, Bluti 0/1, Greti 0/1, Chaff 1/0, Bullf 0/1.


Net ride near sluice







Net ride through the nettles and the spinney

Long Hedge 04/05

A quick session with 3x 60s before the wind and rain arrived. Tally 6 new & 8 retraps of 9 species.
Dunno 0/3 (menage a trois), Robin 1/0 - a 3JJ, Blabi 1M/1F, Blaca 1F/1M, Garwa 1/0 - managed to age this as a 5 with 1 ogc, Chiff 0/1 another 5 on central tail feathers, Bluti 0/2 - both males, one from March '06 as a 5, Greti 1M/0, Chaff 1F/0.
Cuckoo and Gt.Spot hanging around but avoiding us, plus Oyk over.

CES V1 - Thorns

Sunday - a very productive first visit ... but no Nightingales seen or heard! Very good numbers of Whitethroats. Turtle Dove purring away and laughing at the nets - as usual!

Trainee versus Trainer ???

Today's tally was 33 new birds, plus 7 retraps from previous years, of a remarkable 13 species.

Wren 3/0, Dunno 4/2, Robin 1/0, Blabi 3/1, Sonth 1/0, Leswh 1/0, White 7/1, Garwa 1/0, Blaca 2/0, Chiff 3/0, Wilwa 2/1, Lotti 2/2, Chaff 3/0.

The "extreme gardening" over the winter seems to have done the trick.

CES V1 - Priory

Song Thrush - adult (6) female

2nd May - a fine, sunny day with little wind (NW) saw a total catch of 12 new adults and 5 retraps from '08; Dunno 0/2, Blabi 2/0, Sonth 1/0, White 2/1, Blaca 4/0, Wilwa 1/0, Bluti 0/1, Greti 1/0 & Bullf 1/1.
The average total catch over 12 visits stands at 320, so todays catch equates to a 64% result. However, the average number of NFY adults per year is 130, and most of these are caught in the first 6 visits (round about 22 per visit would be fair going). Perhaps we had an 80% success ratio or better this morning?

The new male Whitethroats - 6 on the L, 5 on the R

The retrap Whitethroat was a 6F and was carrying F3 & bp1. so probably fresh in. The Blackcaps were evenly split on sex, with one of the females being very 'eggy'. The bullfinches were a pair.
There was a dearth of Robin, Wren & Chiffy song today, with just a little from the Dunnocks. The main songsters were Blackcap and the Garden Warblers which arrived during the week.