Attenborough CES, Visit 1 - Sunday 6 May

The first CES visit of the season was carried out on Sunday by Sue, Fiona, Alex, Duncan, Mick T, Gary, and I. Not a cloud in the sky all morning and no wind either so the temperature started to rise quickly.

The catch was slow throughout no doubt affected by the hot conditions. Total catch was only half of the first visit last year at 23 (including 7 retraps) made up of (new/retrap): Blackbird 5/1, Dunnock 1/2, Robin 0/1, Blackcap 3/1, Chiffchaff 1/0, Reed Warbler 0/1, Blue Tit 3/0, Great Tit 1/0, Treecreeper 0/1, Reed Bunting 2/0. A slow start, let’s hope it gets better on the future visits. The oldest retrap was a Blackcap from 2015, caught in the same net but not caught in the intervening years.

This year we were able to replace all of our rather tired CES nets, following a grant from East Midlands Airport. As a volunteer organisation, we would not have been able to buy new nets without considerable expense to the members. We would like to thank East Midlands Airport for their generous help.

Kev