Reed Warblers

This morning myself and Tom met at Holme Pierrepont and put on our waders to check the reed beds for Reed Warbler nests.

Considering I promised myself I was really going to "go for it" this year, I was a little surprised that we located just five Reed Warbler nests.

As with many species this year, the birds are much later than previous years, (considering I was ringing large chicks with Pete on 15 June in 2012) the nests we discovered today were either ready for laying or contained just one single egg. Only one nest had a full clutch of four warm eggs.

To add to the challenge, the water level had risen somewhat and often came over the top of my waders, we also noted that there was very little new growth in the reed bed (perhaps stunted by the cold spring?), which could account for the low number of nests.

The day did bring us a bubbling female Cuckoo and later a calling male Cuckoo as well as Common Tern, Cinnabar Moths, hundreds of low flying Swifts and various Coot and Swan nests, so all in all lots of fun.

We hope to do another round in a few weeks and see if the Reed Warblers have picked up.

Ian