SWINDON STW
Ringers are watchers of weather. We can be obsessed with it. It didn't look good when we arrived on site with chilly drizzle to greet us. Thankfully conditions improved enough to open the nets for CES 5. We were joined by a visiting ringer from Stirling who had contacted the group via the UK Ringers facebook page. I can't quite recall his name...something like...Jeremiah Van Der Valk...or something like that, originally hailing from Denmark. This would be a good oppertunity for Jimminy to experience some of the warbler species he doesn't encounter that often up north, and also to acclimatise to the group's unique sense of humour. The first 2 or 3 rounds were very quiet, possibly due to the damp and depressed temperatures. The sun showed up later, and with it the tempo increased. The next rounds were quite steady and provided us with some of the warblers that characterise the site. Yorrick was pleased to be able to ring Lesser Whitethroat and the understated,but another ringers favourite, the Garden Warbler. The early quieter rounds gave us plenty of time to drink tea and discuss moult and the like with Jorvik. Retraps of note were a Whitethroat and Dunnock from 2010, Greenfinch from 2011, Reed Warbler with 6 from 2014 and 1 from 2013 and Sedge Warbler with 3 from 2014 and 2 from 2013. A repectable 66 new and 47 retraps ended CES 5. Jango hadn't a great deal of experience ringing nestlings so i took him on a sweep of the reed beds to search for more Reed Warbler nests. First though i took him to a Sedge Warbler nest I had found. Biff and I had watched them carrying food the day before. He missed out ringing them today on account of a bout of Diarrohea he was suffering from. He'd had a trouser accident at home apparently, so better he wasn't with us today! Keep snorting that Immodium Biff! Anyway, we ringed a brood of 5 which are the first Sedge Warbler pulli we've ringed on site. A sweep of the reeds revealed a poor start to the Reed Warbler season with more brood failures than this time last year. This wet, cool and windy Spring has done them no good. I found two nests last week with obvious Cuckoo eggs in them. Interestingly, one has gone missing from one of the nests with 3 warm Reed Warbler eggs remaining. Looks like they've twigged and ejected the Cuckoo. Interesting to see how the other Cuckoo egg fares. All-in-all though i think we gave Johann Wotsit a good day, and he got to experience how we do things in Wurzelshire. MP SW PW JM
Treecreeper 0 (1), Cetti's Warbler 0 (1), Chiffchaff 5 (1), LTT 2, Goldcrest 1, Wren 1, Dunnock 3 (9), Greenfinch 3 (1), Blackbird 1 (1), Blackcap 8 (2), Reed Warbler 7 (11), Sedge Warbler 5 (9), Blue Tit 9 (3), Great Tit 3 (2), Garden Warbler 1, Robin 6, Goldfinch 5, Bullfinch 3 (4), Whitethroat 2 (2), Lesser Whitethroat 1
We had one notable absentee from the group today which was Paul Aubrey. Paul is moving back to Wales at the end of the month to pursue a more amenable lifestyle,and indulge in his own personal projects which include birding tours of Lesvos. We wish him the best of luck with that. You hit the ground running in this group and god knows what he thought he'd got himself into when he joined us 3 years ago! He brought a degree of organisation to our style of 'seat-of-the-pants' ringing which i hope we can maintain in his absence. He's made significant contributions to the group, and has proved to be a good solid and dependable ringer. Hopefully he'll continue to be involved in ringing as he'll be a valuable asset in any ringing group he joins. Hopefully he'll come back to visit us from time to time, if anything to experience me and Matt's creative banter which i'm sure is the one thing he'll miss most of all.
SALISBURY PLAIN (CENTRE)
On getting up at 0230 I was greeted by steady rain but a quick check of the rain radar suggested our CES site on Salisbury Plain was right on the edge of the rain band. By the time we got there the rain had stopped so the CES session was on.
Because of poor weather most weekends and the fact that the best nets on site are extra nets on the live artillery range meaning we can’t ring there in the week, this was only the second time this season we’ve been able to get these nest up and they ended up catching more new birds than most of the other nets including another Lesser Whitethroat.
On arrival the usual single male Nightingale was still singing but another soon started up close by. This bird was soon caught and turned out to be a new age 5 bird, obviously a failed breeder from elsewhere attracted by the other male singing. The silent male and his mate were caught during the first net round at the other end of the site so hopefully by now they are feeding young in the nest.
Quite a few fledged Willow Warbler’s and Chiffchaff’s were around again and we also caught our first 3J Blackcap’s of the year. There was however no sign of an 3J Whitethroat’s which are normally around by this week but it does look the colder spring weather has set breeding in general back by a week or so. The weather certainly hasn’t affected Robin and Dunnock breeding success as 3J’s of these were everywhere. We also caught up with 3 Blue Tit’s ringed as pulli two weeks ago.
Of interest, we caught another control Reed Warbler which judging from by other ringing site nearer Swindon are still trickling through on passage.
Some more pulli Swallow’s were ringed from the artillery observation bunkers and the Stock Dove’s have re-laid after a failed breeding attempt earlier in the season. GD, PD, OF
56 new, 14 pulli, 55 retraps
Swallow 14 pulli, Wren 1(5), Dunnock 7(6), Robin 7(2), Nightingale 1(2), Blackbird 2(5), Song Thrush 3(1), Reed Warbler (1), Lesser Whitethroat 1(2), Whitethroat 4(7), Garden Warbler (1), Blackcap 5(5), Chiffchaff 6(6), Willow Warbler 6(5), Blue Tit 3(4), Goldfinch 2, Linnet 2, Bullfinch 5(3), Yellowhammer 1
