Wilstone Reservoir 6th August 2017

Under virtually identical weather conditions as last Tuesday (when we caught 140 birds) we were disappointed to catch only 57 birds. We were also disappointed to see a female Sparrowhawk escape from the nets at net ride one.
Looking at the records CES session 10 has quite often registered a dip in numbers,so maybe I should have expected it. Still Sandra was pleased with her first Kingfisher which is some consolation.
A single Willow warbler caught was the only sign of an Autumn passage and only 1 Sedge warbler was encountered .
Johne

	New	Retrap	Total
Blackcap	1	3	4
Blue Tit	2	2	4
Bullfinch	3		3
Chiffchaff	12	5	17
Kingfisher	1		1
Reed Bunting	1		1
Reed Warbler	14	4	18
Robin	1	1	2
Sedge Warbler	1		1
Whitethroat	1		1
Willow Warbler	1		1
Wren	3	1	4
Total	41	16	57

Wendover 6th August - CES#10

CES#10 was completed on 6th August in a very pleasant calm and sunny start that ended with light winds and some cloud cover.  The total catch of 30 was below the average (47) but about par for recent sessions.  2 retrapped Dunnocks were the first of that species since CES#7 despite the number of individuals trapped looking to be very healthy up until that point – we wondered where they might have gone.

Species	Total Summary	New Bird	Retrap
Blackbird	12	8	4
Blackcap	4	3	1
Bullfinch	3	2	1
Chiffchaff	1		1
Dunnock	2		2
Robin	6	4	2
Song Thrush	1	1
Wren	1	1

Blackbirds continue to do well with the highest count of individuals being trapped since 2011.  One notable 3J J  showed what appeared to be a quite spectacular growth bar across primary and greater coverts.  It may have also replaced its tail which is where such features are usually noted.  Apologies for the poor quality photo, but it seemed an observation worth sharing.

Juvenile Blackbird with unusual bars on feathers

An number of fat caterpillars of The Cinnabar were completing feeding on their ragwort foodplant – usually only one caterpillar per plant.  A rather nice Field Maple had been noted colonising some of the old workings by Ginny the week before and a photo of its attractive and healthy leaves is
below.
Adam & Pete

Cinnebar moth caterpillar on ragwort

Field Maple

Wilstone Reservoir 1st August 2017

Cool at first than warm. Wind light than breezy later
Nets: 540'
Ringers: JT,LL,EM,MCC and JSJ plus guest Anna

 A very satisfactory morning exceeding expectations The first proper round of the day produced 59 birds,almost as many as the days total at the two previous weeks sessions.
We caught a total of 102 new birds and 38 retraps,which included 4 birds from Marsworth. A male Greenfinch was a surprise late in the morning as was a juvenile male Sparrowhawk. We also caught 2 Kingfishers, one a retrap previously ringed on the 16th of July this year. There were more Sedge Warblers and Reed Buntings than of late. Later broods of Chiffchaffs were also present and plenty of young Wrens too.
Johne

	New	Retrap	Total
Blackbird		1	1
Blackcap	16	1	17
Blue Tit	1	5	6
Bullfinch		1	1
Chiffchaff	21	7	28
Garden Warbler	4		4
Goldcrest		1	1
Great Tit	1	2	3
Greenfinch	1		1
Kingfisher	1	1	2
Long Tailed Tit	2	2	4
Reed Bunting	5	2	7
Reed Warbler	25	8	33
Robin	1		1
Sedge Warbler	8	1	9
Sparrowhawk	1		1
Treecreeper	2	2	4
Whitethroat	1		1
Willow Warbler	3		3
Wren	9	3	12
Total	102	38	140

Photographs by Jenny

Male Greenfinch

juvenile male sparrowhawk

juvenile male sparrowhawk

Those short summer nights...

Those short summer nights

 A few years back I had found a Tawny owl's nest in a busy park in North London.
Owls are normally active at night but adults with such a big chicks work around the clock as summer nights alone are not long enough to get all the food their chicks need.
I still chose night over day for this 'project' thinking a picture taken in the dark would look better and hoping that the park would be less manic at night.
I set up a hide far away enough not to disturb the nest, put my camera on a tripod and I was waiting with one end of a remote shutter release in my hand.
Owls are silent fliers, you do not get much notice before they appear right at the front of you so I also had to use a little torch to be able to see the right moment when one of the adults returned and hopefully take a shot before it disappeared into its nest.
As hours passed I started to wonder if they were ever going to return to the nest or had they somehow noticed me and wanted me to leave first?
I also wondered about how vulnerable I was sitting there alone in the dark with some park gangs having a verbal fight on a path not far behind me.
All I could do was hope that those strangers would not pick up the light spreading from my torch and come and say they want 'their' camera back. I think there and then the only thing that kept me in the hide was the fact that I was afraid to move.

Since then I know that nights even in June can be bloody long sometimes......

I missed the right  moment many times before I took this single image towards the end of the third night.

Gab


Tawny owl (Strix aluco)      Wood mouse (Apodemus sylvaticus)

Canon eos600d      Canon24-105mmf/4 II USM  at55mm   1/25sec f7.1  ISO200,