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 WTW - 26th August 2017 - CES#12

The final session was conducted on 26th August on another beautiful, calm morning.  A slightly below average catch of 30, with Blackbird and Blackcap again the dominant species.

2017 comes in at 8th place of 10 CES years for Total Captures and Total Individual birds trapped but probably the most significant measure is the low number (153) of adult birds this year – 9th lowest of 10.   The 2017 productivity (1st Years/ Adults) of 1.78 was the 5th highest in 10 years and pushed 2017 up into 6th place for the total number of 1st Year birds trapped.

Blackbirds and Blackcaps had reasonable years but most other species were low in comparison.  We have only  trapped 1 Garden Warbler since 2011 and Whitethroat and Lesser Whitethroat numbers were disappointing.

A small squadron of armour plated Dor Beetles (probably Geotrupes stercorarius, see below) were trapped in the 1st round and all except one were released unharmed.  The obligatory Willow Warbler in passage turned up mid-morning avoiding our first ever blank for this species in a CES season (range 1-4).

Ringers Adam, Ginny & Pete.

Add caption

Wilstone 4th July 2017

Nets up 5.30 to 11.00
540 feet
Weather warm slight breeze southerly

Jennie,Sandra and I were joined by Ephraim back home for a holiday from his post of assistant warden on Bardsey. A calm bright morning of 86 birds consisting mainly of reed warblers and blackcaps. Chiffs were a little bit scarcer than last week. We did come across three birds in full moult so the season is progressing. Bird of the day was an adult female common tern which flew into net ride one as we were extracting luckily, as no doubt it would have extracted itself.
Johne

Adult female common tern

Total captures were as follows:

	New	Retrap
Blackcap	9	2
Blue tit	5	1
Chiffchaff	6	1
Common Tern	1
Dunnock	1
Great Tit	1	1
Reed Bunting		2
Reed Warbler	18	12
Robin	7	1
Sedge Warbler	6	1
Song Thrush	1
Wren	8	1
Whitethroat	1
	64	22

Insects around today included Brown Hawker, Cinnebar moth caterpillars and "Blood-sucker" beetles Rhagonycha fulva  called that because of their colour, they do not suck blood. Thanks to Jenny for the photos.

Cinnebar moth caterpillars

Rhagonycha fulva

Comma butterfly

Marsworth 11th June 2017

Site: Marsworth Reservoir
Nets open: 05:15 - 10:00
Ringers: LL,KB (JT)
Weather: Rain overnight cleared, sunny, warm, breezy 10 - 13mph WSW

Waking to the sound of rain is never good but although we got a bit damp, by 5:15am the rain had stopped and we could open the nets. For the rest of the morning the sun shone and although the wind picked up the site is sheltered from a westerly breeze. Since it was not a CES session we tried some nets further out into the reed bed to try and discover more about our low reed warbler catch so far this year. We have been wondering if the dry spring has pushed the reed warblers further out away from our nets or if there is a genuine reduction in numbers.

Captures 11/6/2017
	New Bird	Retrap
Blackcap	6
Blue Tit	1	1
Chiffchaff	4
Garden Warbler	1
Great Tit	4
Reed Bunting	1	1
Reed Warbler	5	3
Robin	3
Sedge Warbler		3
Song Thrush	1	1
Treecreeper	1
Wren	2
Total	29	9

Five new reed warblers were welcome but numbers are still low and there was not as much reed warbler song from the reed bed as I would expect at this time of year. The most vocal birds were reed buntings, who must be on their second broods by now, and sedge warblers in display flight. There was also garden warbler and cetti's warbler singing. Lots of juveniles caught today which is good news after a week of high wind and rain: blackcaps, chiffchaff, robins, great tits and the last bird was a 3J treecreeper. We colour-ringed two more reed buntings as part of our reed bunting project, a juvenile and an older female.
The dry reed bed is allowing the sedge, yellow flag iris and nettles to spread and may be benefiting the reed buntings and sedge warblers.

Oedemera noblis Thick-legged flower beetle disappearing into an Iris followed by an unidentified fly.

There were plenty of insects around, as well as the thick-legged flower beetle we found cream-spot ladybird and water ladybird, and Katy spotted one of the longhorn beetles Agapanthia villosoviridescens.

Agapanthia villosoviridescens  on Common Reed