Marsworth 8th October 2017 - Goldcrests and Hornets

Nets: 370' Tapes: Blackcap, Chiffchaff/Goldcrest mix, Chaffinch
Weather Calm and mild
Ringers: LL, CK

Blackcaps are now few and far between but Chiffchaff are still passing through. Numbers of Goldcrests have increased and the 11 we caught included four adults, and we were surprised to find one that had not quite finished its main moult, the outer two primaries still at stage 4 and 3, and the two middle secondaries, S5 and S6,  were still growing (stage 3).

The number of Great Tits caught this year has been well below average so the capture of seven today was unusual, one of them was a retrap adult male and the other 6 were all young females. We colour-ringed four Reed Buntings. One of the Reed Buntings was new, the others were birds that have not been caught since Jan/Feb and are more evidence of Reed Buntings moving back to a regular wintering site. A Chaffinch and Goldfinch added a bit of variety and a Raven was heard flying over 2-3 times during the morning.

We set up a new net ride under the trees with the aim of trying for Tawny Owl next week. Last week we arrived early and tried Tawny Owl tapes which provoked a response from a male and female calling from the trees behind the reservoir but no action. Hopefully our new net will be in a better position.

Unfortunately after a pleasant calm morning we had a rather stressful end; we had at least 11 large hornets in two of the nets and more were flying lazily around. It was a race to get them out and the nets shut before more could go in. All but one was released successfully - they were not aggressive and most of them I released by cutting one or two strands that were caught around their waist and then going around the other side of the net and batting them off and they flew off quite sedately. At the time I was a bit worried about pheromones being released and swarms of aggressive hornets descending on me but I have since found a very interesting website with information about their lifecycle and I think they were probably a mating swarm of new queens and males - lovers not fighters!

http://www.vespa-crabro.com/hornets.htm

Lynne

Species	Total Summary	New Bird	Retrap
Blackcap	3	2	1
Blue Tit	2	1	1
Chaffinch	1	1
Chiffchaff	6	6
Goldcrest	11	11
Goldfinch	1	1
Great Tit	7	5	2
Reed Bunting	5	1	4
Robin	1	1
Wren	4	3	1
Total	41	32	9

Marsworth 6th Aug - CES 10 - Reed Buntings return to moult?

Marsworth
540' CES nets
05:30 - 11:30am
Ringers: LL, CK, CMS

Blackcaps were clacking as the nets went up but there was no real sign of many passing through yet although the elderberries and blackberries are ripening. It was quite a busy start with over 50 birds by 8am but then it went quiet as the (unforecast) breeze picked up and the sun hit the nets. However, we finished with 72 which is above the average (57) for session 10. Juveniles made up 85% of the catch and we continue to catch lots of Chiffchaffs, Wrens and Long-tailed Tits. There was a bit more variety this week though with a Lesser Whitethroat and a group of Bullfinch, two retrap adults with three new juveniles.

Species	Row Summary	New Bird	Retrap
Blackcap	5	3	2
Blue Tit	2		2
Bullfinch	5	3	2
Cetti's Warbler	1		1
Chiffchaff	15	12	3
Dunnock	1	1
Goldcrest	1	1
Great Tit	2	2
Lesser Whitethroat	1	1
Long-tailed Tit	9	8	1
Reed Bunting	3	1	2
Reed Warbler	14	13	1
Robin	1	1
Sedge Warbler	1		1
Willow Warbler	2	1	1
Wren	9	3	6
Totals	72	50	22

We also trapped three Reed Buntings, all adult males in moult. One was a new bird and the other two were retraps from 2016 and 2014 but they had not been seen so far this year so we suspected that they have finished breeding elsewhere and have returned to Marsworth to moult. The photo shows the new head feathers with brown fringes replacing the black, worn, breeding plumage - these fringes will wear off over the winter to reveal the black below in time for next spring. 

Male Reed Bunting

New brown fringed feathers replacing the worn black head feathers

Reed Bunting in wing moult - new darker primary feathers growing sequentially out along the wing.

The vegetation was all very wet from Saturday's downpours and quite garish with the Orange Balsam and pink Great Willowherb. The small Willowherb which has still not been 100% identified but is probably epilobium obscurum had produced a seeds.

Orange Balsam Impatiens capensis

Orange Balsam flowerhead

Willowherb sp.(possibly Epilobium obsurum)

Angelica  Angelica sylvestris

Harvestman

Marsworth 2nd July 2017

The wind was from the NW this morning which is not good at Marsworth, it was also stronger than forecast so being on my own I only put up four nets including a 30' by the hopper in the reed bed to try and catch some more of the locally breeding reed buntings.
The catching was steady, mainly juveniles including the first juvenile bullfinches and another cetti's warbler. Total 42 (27 new 15 retraps).
Sedge warblers seem to have had a successful breeding season and I caught two new sedge warbler juveniles which can be distinguished from the adults by their fresh, yellowy plumage and "necklace" of brown spots.

juvenile sedge warbler

The 30' next to the hopper caught a few reed buntings including an older female that had not been colour-ringed yet plus a couple of adult reed warblers caught for the first time this year, so that was a success. I had one blue tit that had started PJ moult and a dunnock that had virtually completed it, just a few greater coverts growing and body feathers in pin.

Butterflies were abundant once the sun came out, I saw small white, small and large skipper, ringlets, small tortoishell and comma butterflies plus Brown Hawker dragonfly. Water Forget-me-not is flowering in the reed bed rides. A strange looking insect landed on my camera case that I looked up when I got home - Ledra aurita - it is a type of leaf hopper with distinctive earflaps that is apparently usually found on oaks.

Water Forget-me-not Myosotis scorpioides

Ledra aurita

Our wren's nest was empty and looked like the chicks had fledged successfully: the entrance was enlarged but not damaged and inside the floor was flattened.

Lynne

Marsworth 25th June 2017 - CES 6

Site: Marsworth Reservoir
Nets: 540' open 4:40 - 10.40am
Ringers: LL,CMS,CK,GK
Weather: Westerly 10 - 15mph, cloudy

With the forecast for the rest of the week looking very unsettled we took the chance to get CES 6 done today. Glad we did because despite the wind, threatening showers and a worrying mid-morning lull, we had a good session with 83 birds caught and 80% of them juvenile - demonstrating that the breeding season is going very well.

With four of us there the nets went up quickly and although the first net round was quiet, at 5:30am we had a good round of mainly young chiffchaffs and blackcaps but also juvenile robins, wrens and blackbird.

We had another juvenile reed bunting side by side with an adult male which we colour-ringed. Hopefully we will be able to re-sight these birds at the reservoirs over winter.

We caught our first young reed warblers, a second juvenile cetti's warbler and another six young wrens. The wren's nest we are monitoring is nearly ready to fledge so we are promised more next week!

The reed bed is now nearly at full height and the rides are full of marsh bedstraw and there is water figwort coming into flower.

Marsh bedstraw Galium palustre

Water Figwort Scrophularia nodosa

At around 9am it started to go quiet and for a while I thought it was going to be a disappointing total but just as we started to think about taking the nets down we were hit by a lovely flock of young tits, chiffchaff and our first young goldcrest. Twenty nine birds in the last round brought the total up to 83 which is well above the average of 60 for CES#6.

	New	Retrap	Total
Blackbird	1		1
Blackcap	10	3	13
Blue Tit	3		3
Bullfinch		1	1
Cetti’s Warbler	1		1
Chiffchaff	19	4	23
Goldcrest	1		1
Great Tit	2	2	4
Long-tailed Tit	5	4	9
Reed Bunting	1	2	3
Reed Warbler	4	1	5
Robin	3		3
Sedge Warbler	1	3	4
Song Thrush		2	2
Treecreeper		1	1
Wren	6	3	9
Total	57	26	83

Smoky Wainscot

During our quiet mid-morning we had a look around for insects and found a few interesting ones.

Scorpion Fly