Wendover CES 3 - 26th May 2018

560ft nets (standard CES pattern)
nets open from 03:56 to 09:20

Another well below par session that started in calm,overcast, misty conditions but was terminated 40 minutes early due to rain.   No migrant species were encountered, which must be a first for this session.  We're struggling to come up with an explanation for the low numbers, but it seems that similar CES results are being reported over Southern England at least.  The total of 18 compares with a historical average of 40 for CES#3.
Our first juvenile Robin and a 3 year old adult Robin were probably the highlights!

Species	Total	New Bird	Retrap
Blackbird	3	2	1
Blue Tit	1	1
Bullfinch	4	3	1
Chaffinch	1	1
Dunnock	4	1	3
Great Tit	1		1
Robin	3	1	2
Wren	1		1
	18	9	9

Ringers: Pete & Ginny

Marsworth - CES 3 26th May 2018

CES 3
All CES nets 540'
Weather: damp, misty, occasional showers
Ringers: LL, CK, CMS

We arrived at 4:30 and the nets went up reasonably quickly despite a shelf string breaking (again! - cheap nets are a poor investment...) It was a misty, drizzly morning with a lot of water drops coming off the trees over where we sit and we and the ringing kit got very wet. We had a large umbrella covering the place where we hang the birds but it was not necessary - we had so few birds we hardly had to hang them up.

Species	New Birds	Retraps	Total
Blackbird	2		2
Blackcap	4		4
Blue Tit		2	2
Long Tail Tit	5		5
Reed Warbler	7		7
	18	2	20

We did get 7 new Reed Warblers with very little sign of breeding yet so these have probably only recently arrived. We wondered about the impact of the large areas of reed that were flattened by the heavy snow in December.
As you can see from the table, the range of species was very poor. No wrens!! Unheard of!! No Robins or Dunnocks. The Blackcaps were mainly females with BP3 and the first CES juveniles were the five Long Tail Tits.

The final total was just 20 birds compared to the average of 42. Our totals for the first three CES sessions add up to just 68 birds - the range since 1991 has been between 77 and 148 for these first three sessions: numbers are seriously down this year.

A young Muntjac stood watching us for a few minutes and Green Woodpecker, Cetti's Warbler and Willow Warbler were all singing.
After a morning of damp and drizzle the sun came out and a Mother Shipton moth appeared.

Mother Shipton on Ground Ivy

Marsworth CES 2 - 13th May 2018

Nets: all CES nets 560'
Weather: Heavy rain overnight but calm and dry all morning
Ringers: LL GK CK CMS (AK)

Species	New Birds	Retraps	Total
Blackbird	1	2	3
Blackcap	1	1	2
Blue Tit		1	1
Chiffchaff		3	3
Dunnock		1	1
Garden Warbler	1		1
Great Tit	1	2	3
Reed Bunting	1	1	2
Reed Warbler	5		5
Robin	1	1	2
Wren		1	1
	11	13	24

Worries about rain during the morning proved unnecessary and it was a calm, slightly cloudy, cool morning. It should have been good ringing conditions but the birds were few and far between. Best results were five new Reed Warblers and a new female Reed Bunting with BP2. We caught a Robin ringed in 2013 and caught every year since and a female Blackcap from 2014. We were pleased to catch a male Garden Warbler in breeding condition.  As last week, the Willow Warbler and Cetti's Warbler sang all morning but did not go near the nets. The final total of 24 birds is well below the average of 39 for CES 2.

Garden Warbler

There had been heavy rain overnight and the smell of hawthorn blossom was thick in the air. We checked the nest boxes again and now have two Blue Tits and three Great Tits on eggs and Stock Doves on eggs in both of the owl boxes. Another of the large boxes that was put up for Starlings had 9 cold, small eggs completely covered with a mass of moss and leaves as if another nest was being built on top of them. A Hobby flew around the wood but there was no sign of the Cuckoo. Not many insects around, just a small cloud of gnats around our ringing table, a Cardinal Beetle and an enormous Hornet that looked nearly 3cm long and must have been a queen prospecting for a nest site, let's hope she finds one far away from us.

Cardinal Beetle Pyrochroa serraticornis

Lynne

Wendover CES 2 15th May 2018

560ft nets (standard CES pattern)
nets open from 04:12 to 10:12

Another sunny morning, if a little chilly at the start 1 hour before dawn.
There seemed to be plenty of birdsong but the catch was very disappointing.  A couple of new male Blackcaps with just a trace of fat will hopefully stay on site to boost numbers later.  A juvenile Blackbird was our first young bird of the year.

Species	Total	New Bird	Retrap
Blackbird	2	1	1
Blackcap	2	2
Blue Tit	1	1
Bullfinch	2	2
Dunnock	3		3
Great Tit	1		1
Robin	2		2
Song Thrush	1		1
Wren	1	1
Total	15	7	8

Ringers Adam, Ginny & Pete

Meisen Wood: My, what large eyes you have!

Date: 28-4-2018

Nets: 105m – new summer configuration

Music: none

Weather: slight breeze, 14°C rising to 19°C

Ringers: CS and EB

Species	Ringed	Re-trapped	Total
Blackbird	1	2	3
Blackcap	1	1	2
Blue Tit		1	1
Bullfinch	1		1
Crested Tit		1	1
Firecrest		1	1
Goldcrest		1	1
Great Tit		2	2
Marsh Tit		2	2
Pied Flycatcher	1	4	5
Short-toed Treecreeper	1		1
Song Thrush	1		1
Wren		2	2
Total	6	17	23

A fine morning’s bird ringing in near perfect conditions: warm, slightly overcast and an occasional light breeze.  The number of captured birds was within expectations and several of them illustrated points of seasonal interest.

All week it had been evident the number of Pied Flycatcher in the wood have been increasing with more singing males.  The newly ringed Pied Flycatcher was a male, aged 6.  One of the re-traps was a male originally ringed in May 2016 and has been caught several times each spring; this demonstrates typical site fidelity that is associated with male Pied Flycatcher.

Catching low numbers of birds allows time to carefully examine the in-hand specimens.  This is particularly useful with Pied Flycatchers because their moult strategy can present challenges in aging some individuals.  Also it allows time to appreciate other components of a bird’s anatomy and beauty.  Until today we had not really appreciated the size of Pied Flycatcher eyes.  For some species e.g., Robin it has been postulated that their large eyes are an adaptation to life on the forest floor amongst the undergrowth.  Such a hypothesis does not seem to hold for Pied Flycatcher who inhabit the well light forest canopy or open scrubland; though their large eyes will be an adaptation to some aspect to the niche they occupy.

During the week several male Pied Flycatcher had been observed singing in close proximity to nest boxes including one male next to a box fitted with a TV camera.  Thus we were delighted this morning to watch a male escort a female, who was carrying nesting material, to this nest box.  Now the suspicion is that we are about to become TV addicts.

All the females captured today, except one, had brood patches. The exception was a new captured Blackcap which had a fat score of 5 and weighed 21.2g; clearly this individual is still on migration.  This is a delightful seasonal juxtaposition of breeding birds mixing with migrating birds.

Sadly, sometimes, due to the close encounters bird ringing allows, we do catch sick birds.  Infrequently, fortunately, we catch Chaffinch with papillomatosis - a foot infection; people sometimes see this “warty” like growth on Chaffinch visiting their bird feeders.  When we catch such individuals we release them immediately and clean our hands with an anti-sceptic gel.  Today we caught a Blue Tit with swollen, bulging, watery eyes.  On close inspection we counted 19 small ticks on his eyelids; these were too small to safely remove.  We do wonder how his vision maybe impaired and thus his survival chances too.

This slow session was enhanced by other events in the natural world.  All morning the slight breeze carried a green confetti of beech leaf bud scales; fortunately they just fell through the mist nets.  Numerous butterflies graced the meadow and woodland edge spiralling nuptial dance flights were a delight to watch; species included: Brimstone Yellow, several White types, Peacocks and a large number of Orange Tips visiting wild garlic flowers. 

While we watched the wildlife some wildlife watched us.  A Tawny Owl sat in a larch tree, as it has been for several days now, looking in our direction all morning.  This Tawny Owl nonchalantly ignored the mobbing from almost hysterical vocal blackbirds.  Periodically it was joined by another Tawny Owl.  There had been a breeding pair, in an old hollow beech tree, that seem to have been evicted by the incessant harassment of Jackdaws; were these that pair?

Chris