Marsworth - 29th August - CES 12 An excellent final session

Weather: Calm, sunny, warm
Ringers: LL, GK, CMS with AM and SK
Nets: 540' 06.00am - 12:00

The last CES session of the year and there was a feeling of autumn in the air. The reeds were wet with dew and starting to fall into the rides and Tawny Owls were calling as we put up the nets. The early rounds were very busy with lots of juvenile Chiffchaff and Blackcaps, a few Willow Warblers, Bullfinch plus 4 new Robins and a new 3J Cetti's Warbler. By 9am we had already caught 80 birds and it then started to quieten down. Claire had to leave early for work so we were pleased to have had the assistance of  Szabina and new trainee Anna, who was thrown in at the deep-end as Scribe and coped admirably. There were three Hobbies flying around constantly calling, they must have been young birds; one was chased over our heads by a Magpie. We caught two juvenile Reed Buntings which we colour-ringed. The Song Thrush was an adult female with BP4 almost certainly the parent of the three late nestlings ringed last week. Only 5 birds were found to carrying any fat: 3 Blackcaps and 2 Willow Warblers. We finished with 109 of which 104 were juveniles.

A total of 109 brings our CES total for 2017 to 829, this is the =2nd highest final total since 1991 (when my computerised records start).
We would not have thought this possible at the start of the year as we started with very low numbers of adults. At session 6 we were 8% below average. The high final total is a result of the extraordinary high numbers of juveniles in the last 6 sessions.

I am very pleased that we have managed to complete all 12 sessions again and thank you to everyone who has helped to get it done.
Lynne

SPNAME	Row Summary	Control	New Bird	Retrap
Blackcap	23		23
Blue Tit	6		5	1
Bullfinch	3		2	1
Cetti's Warbler	2		1	1
Chiffchaff	42		36	6
Goldcrest	1		1
Great Tit	5		3	2
Reed Bunting	2		2
Reed Warbler	5	1	4
Robin	5		4	1
Song Thrush	1			1
Treecreeper	1			1
Willow Warbler	5		5
Wren	8		5	3
Totals	109	1	91	17