Attenborough CES Visit 6, Sunday 26 June

We carried out the last CES visit of the season on Sunday. The weather forecast was totally wrong: having said it would be dry all morning, rain started before we had got the last of the nets up and showers continued until mid-morning. There was a light wind first thing and it did pick up slightly later. The team consisted of Gary, Pete, Alex, Tom, Sue and myself.

The catch was slow to start, no doubt because of the wet conditions, but things picked up as the morning progressed. We ended with a catch of 32 made up of: Blackbird 1/0, Dunnock 1/2, Wren 2/1, Robin 1/0, Blackcap 6/0, Chiffchaff 2/1, Reed Warbler 2/2, Blue Tit 4/0, Great Tit 1/2, Treecreeper 0/1, Bullfinch 2/0.

The oldest retraps were a Reed Warbler and Great Tit from 2012. This year gave us our best ever totals in the current CES nets but despite this, we did not catch any Garden Warblers. We started to ring on the Delta in Attenborough in 1994 and this is the only year since we started that Garden Warblers have been absent from our catch.

Kev

 Treecreeper (Tom Shields)

Stanford Buzzards, 21 June

Today, I joined Kev to ring some Buzzard chicks at a traditional nest site near Stanford. David Stock,  who used to work at Stanford Hall, has been finding nests and arranging for us to ring the chicks at the site for 10 years, with Buzzards being ringed there every year since 2008 (except for 2011).

Having climbed to the nest, I looked in to see two healthy chicks and a toad. The toad was alive and apparently uninjured, though it was very cold to the touch and not very active. This made me wonder if an adult had delivered it alive in order for the chicks to practice their predatory skills. I did have a conflict of conscience over whether to leave the toad to its fate or to return it to ground level. In the end I decided not to interfere with nature and leave the buzzards their meal.

Mick P

Attenborough CES Visit 5, Sunday 19 June

We carried out the fifth CES visit of the season on Sunday. The weather was sunny to start, with occasional light clouds but it gradually clouded up as the morning progressed. There was virtually no wind first thing but it did pick up slightly later. The team consisted of Gary, Pete, Amelia, Dave and myself.

The catch was steady throughout and a Kingfisher and the first Nuthatch for the site added interest. We ended with a catch of 50 made up of: Kingfisher 1/0, Song Thrush 2/0, Dunnock 1/1, Wren 4/0, Robin 7/1, Blackcap 3/2, Chiffchaff 1/0, Reed Warbler 5/5, Long-tailed Tit 0/1, Blue Tit 2/0, Great Tit 10/0, Treecreeper 1/0, Nuthatch 1/0, Bullfinch 2/0. The oldest retrap was a Reed Warbler from 2012 that was originally ringed at Holme Pierrepont.

Kev

 Photos by Dave Walker

Wales, 11 June 2016

Group members escape the East Midlands a couple of times a year to help monitor nestboxes in Wales. Having entered all the data from this year, the total number of birds ringed were as follows:

Pied Flycatcher: 164 pulli, 3 new adults and 2 retraps from 2013 and 2015
Redstart: 21 pulli and 1 new adult

So despite the soaking we all had we had the best totals of Pied Flycatcher since 2010 and the best Redstart totals since 2012.


Kev

(all photos taken by T. Shields)

Nestboxes

Good to ring my first Barn and Little Owl chicks of the year today - and it looks like there will be a few more of each, making a nice change from last year when I ringed none!

Pete

Attenborough CES Visit 4, Tuesday 7 June

We carried out the fourth CES visit of the season on Tuesday. The weather was sunny with occasional light clouds passing and virtually no wind. The team consisted of Gary, Duncan and myself. We had a better catch than we did on Visit 3, the total being 28/15 (new/retrap) made up of: Blackbird 3/1, Dunnock 3/2, Wren 0/2, Robin 4/0, Blackcap 2/1, Chiffchaff 2/1, Reed Warbler 2/4, Cetti’s Warbler 0/1, Long-tailed Tit 7/2, Blue Tit 2/0, Great Tit 1/0, Tree Creeper 2/1. The oldest retrap was a Blackbird from 2012. The drop in Garden Warblers at the site seems to continue, with only two visits left this year we have yet to catch one!

Kev