Holme Pierrepont - Wednesday 31 July

It was great to get out for a cheeky midweek session today with Kev, Kev, Gary, Holly and Josh. Having not been to the site for a couple of years, I struggled to recognise many areas, the vegetation has grown up so much. It remains an interesting spot, but one that's increasingly difficult to net. However, despite this and the hot weather, we had a good day and continued to catch well beyond midday.

The day was dominated by Chiffchiffs and notable for the number of Garden Warblers, one of which was a control. The final tally was 79, which included 6 retraps and the control. This comprised: 32 Chiffchaff, 4 Wren, 4 Willow Warbler, 3 Long-tailed Tit, 11 Blackcap, 5 Blue Tit, 8 Reed Warbler, 1 Whitethroat, 1 Chaffinch, 8 Garden Warbler, 1 Dunnock and 1 Blackbird.

One Garden Warbler (see photos below) had, unusually, moulted a handful of remiges, tertials and coverts and many other adult birds were now in full wing moult.

It's generally been a poor year for insects, but we noted several species of butterfly, moth and dragonfly. However, the undoubted highlight away from the birds were the abundant and succulent blackberries, some fresh from the bush, some returned to the site as delicious pie by Holly courtesy of the 2023 season.

Pete

Garden Warbler showing an unusual moult pattern

Garden Warbler showing an unusual moult pattern

Willow Warbler

The Forge Nature Reserve – Ringing Demo, Sunday 28 July

The Forge Nature Reserve is a privately owned reserve just on the Derbyshire side of the county boundary at Ironville. Seven of us were joined by volunteers from the Cromford Canal and Codnor Park Reservoir Group and the Forge Nature Reserve to carry out a bird ringing demonstration on the reserve.

Following several meetings and site visits, two quieter areas of the large site were identified where we could erect two lines of nets which would be close to a suitable area for our base.

All the birds caught were taken to our ringing base where groups of interested visitors waited to see the birds and the ringing process.

The morning started well, considering how quiet the site seemed, with around 24 birds in the first catch. These birds were ringed, data gathered and then shown to the enthusiastic visitors before being released.

As is often the case, this was the best catch of the day with numbers dwindling as the morning progressed. Luckily we always caught something to show the 20 or so visitors throughout the morning.

We packed up around 11:30, the warm temperatures also influencing this decision.

In total we ringed 60 birds, comprising: 13 Chiffchaff, 7 Willow Warbler, 2 Wren, 1 Garden Warbler, 4 Robin, 8 Blue Tit, 10 Great Tit, 1 Bullfinch, 9 Blackcap, 1 Reed Bunting, 2 Reed Warbler, 1 Whitethroat and 1 Woodpigeon.

So, a great morning and a reasonably good catch on a site we have never operated at before.

Many thanks to everyone who attended but particular thanks must go to Sally Fisher, for allowing us onto her reserve, and to members of the Cromford Canal and Codnor Park Reservoir Group for publicising the event, organising the visitors and opening the gates!

Hopefully further studies can be undertaken on the birds using The Forge Nature Reserve.

We would very much like to thank the Cromford Canal and Codnor Park Reservoir Group for their generous donation. 

Mick P & Kev 

Demo base (KJH)

Terns and Sand Martins at Attenborough, Thurs 18 July

This morning, we made our final visit of the year to check on and ring the Common Tern chicks
on the floating platform at Attenborough Nature Reserve. On our previous visit, there were a
number of eggs still to hatch, and today we were able to ring 12 chicks and retrap 1 chick that
was very small on the last visit.

We had also intended to check on the Oystercatcher chick, but the engine of the boat gave out
so we had to row back. The Oystercatcher will now be monitored from the shore and we hope
that it’s still being provisioned by its parents until it’s big enough to fledge.

Following our workout, we ringed 3 Sand Martin chicks at the artificial sand bank. It seems that
only one pair decided to try for a second brood.

Holly

 

Holme Pierrepont Ringing Demo - Sunday 14 July

Today we held a ringing demonstration at Holme Pierrepont for the Friends of the Hook Nature Reserve group. The numbers caught still seemed low compared to previous years, however a relatively high number of juvenile warblers were caught compared to previous visits this year. The low numbers could partly be due to a poor breeding season and lower bird populations in general, combined with the growth of the vegetation at the reserve making it a less favourable site for warblers and for us to catch warblers than when ringing started there. As the breeding season for many species is coming to an end, we used MP3 players playing mixed warbler calls to try and catch more warblers and this was successful. 

The final totals were 18 Chiffchaff, 3 Willow Warbler, 10 Reed Warbler, 13 Blackcap, 4 Garden Warbler, 1 Lesser Whitethroat, 1 Treecreeper, 2 Wren, 2 Robin, and 1 Reed Bunting. The 55 birds made for an enjoyable and interesting demonstration for the group and several other visitors to the reserve.

Thanks to Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust for allowing us to hold the demonstration on the reserve.

Alex T

 

The Shiants

I had the opportunity to join the first week of the Shiant Isles seabird monitoring trip, organised by the Shiants Seabird Research Group led by Jim Lennon. The Shiants are a group of three uninhabited islands between Skye and Harris in the Outer Hebrides. They support nationally important populations of over 200,000 seabirds and the two-week trip is timed to coincide with chicks being of ringable age.

We took a chartered boat from Uig on Skye, stopping off on the way at the island of Fladda Chuain to see what breeding birds we could find. We ringed 43 Arctic Tern chicks, as well as small numbers of Oystercatcher, Ringed Plover and Great Black-backed Gull. From the boat we saw a pod of Common Dolphins and two Manx Shearwaters.

Our main priorities were to complete the Razorbill RAS and Puffin RAS, which stands for Retrapping Adults for Survival and is a way to get consistent datasets across years to calculate the adult survival rates for individual species. During the Puffin RAS we also collected fish samples dropped at the net to analyse the success of their foraging.

The week was hugely impacted by rain and 45 mph winds, but when there were breaks in the weather we also managed to identify Great Skua territories, colour-ring Great Black-backed Gull and Herring Gull chicks, spring-trap Wheatears and Rock Pipits on the beach, mist net Storm Petrels at night, collect and fit new geolocators, and complete the daily log, with highlights being Golden Eagle, White-tailed Eagle and Arctic Skua.

One of the Storm Petrels was a control that was ringed 21 years ago. We’re waiting to find out where it was ringed.

On the boat back to Uig we saw Common Dolphin again and Sooty Shearwater.

In week 2, the group hopes to ring Razorbill and Guillemot chicks in the boulder field, find and ring Shag chicks, and fit more geolocators. In week 3, a small number of people will look for evidence of breeding Storm Petrels on the island of Shillay.

Thank you very much to Jim and the whole week 1 team for their support. I found it a steep learning curve, but I have a passion for seabirds and it was a good experience to see how they can be monitored for maximum return on useful data. 

Holly

 

Attenborough tern platforms, 03 July 2024

The first trip out in the boat to the tern platforms was made today. I had been monitoring the terns nesting on the platforms at Attenborough; 5 platforms, 2 with terns nesting. On 8 June the oldest and only fixed platform appeared (when viewed from the bank) to have a sitting Oystercatcher, but no Terns. I presumed the outlook for any eggs that hatched was not good as the precocial chicks would be on a barren platform 1m above the water with a 0.5m fence around it. So today we dodged the rain amazingly, ringed 21 terns and found about 20 more eggs still to hatch. Then we headed to the old platform to see what had happened to the Oystercatcher. To my great surprise we found a healthy chick which could hardly have been feeding itself as a chick in a natural site would. I checked BWP which said adults feed chick's for a 'variable ' amount of time. I guess these adults have had to fly in with every mouthful. We ringed it and will go and check on it on our next tern ringing outing. I have since been given information of other Oystercatchers bring up chicks in similar situations.

Kev 

Common Tern chicks and eggs, ANR (KJH)

Oystercatcher chick, ANR (KJH)

Holme Pierrepont - 30 June 2024 and 07 July 2024

The first and second summer sessions were held at Holme Pierrepont, both in reasonable weather conditions. We were hoping for some decent numbers after the disappointing CES sessions at Attenborough, but we ended on just 38 birds on the 30/6 and 42 on the 7/7, both from 150m of net. There seems to be very low numbers of juveniles, particularly tits and warblers. A poor breeding season is probably partly to blame but the increasing spread of willow is the main issue as the habitat is becoming poorer. 

So far not a single Whitethroat has found the nets at Holme Pierrepont this year. A quick look back 10 years at the end of June, beginning of July and the same site produced catches of 66 and 94 birds. 

The main bird of interest was a Cetti’s caught on the 30/6 that was originally ringed in Warwickshire in 2022.

Totals for 30/6 were: Blackcap 3, Blue Tit 5, Cetti’s Warbler 1, Chiffchaff 11, Dunnock 3, Garden Warbler 2, Great Tit 4, Lesser Whitethroat 1, Long-tailed Tit 1, Reed Warbler 5, Treecreeper 1, Willow Warbler 1.

Totals for 7/7 were: Blackcap 4, Blue Tit 4, Chiffchaff 13, Dunnock 3, Great Tit 1, Long-tailed Tit 4, Reed Warbler 6, Robin 4, Wren 3.

Kev