Holme Pierrepont, Sunday 9 June

An overcast sky with a slight breeze awaited Duncan, Tom, Alex, Gary, Nabegh and I at Holme Pierrepont yesterday. It was good to see Nabegh safe and well, I'm sure most of the group have been concerned about him whilst he was in Syria.

It took a while to erect the nets as some of the rides had grown over despite our clearance efforts in the spring. Water levels were still high so the end nets of the runs into the reeds could not be erected unfortunately and the 'campers' and all their associated trash were still around.

However a good catch was made including juvs of resident species and warblers. We ended on 75 of which 63 were new. All the usual warbler species were caught except Chiffchaff. Unusually no returning Reed Warblers were caught; they were mostly new birds. The only two we did catch wearing rings were a British control and a French control. Other interesting retraps were a Cetti's from 2012 and a Green Woodpecker from 2009. We decided not leave any poles on site because of the campers.

Kev

All photos by Gary Goddard. The caterpillar is that of 'The Drinker' moth.

The Tawny Owl season

Here are the scores from the East Midlands Tawnovision jury, based on our first visits to 173 nest boxes:

EAST LINCS

Tawny Owl 14 (17%)
Jackdaw 25 (30.5%)
Stock Dove 14 (17%)
Great Tit 1 (1.5%)
Grey Squirrel 16 (19.5%)
Empty 12 (14.5%)

= Total 82

Tawny Owl breakdown: 1x 4 pulli, 1x 3 pulli, 1x 2 pulli, 2x 1 pull+1 egg, 3x 2 eggs, 2x 1egg, 2x addled/abandoned egg, 1x adult sat tight and 1x roosting/late nesting bird

NORTH NOTTS

Tawny Owl 19 (40%)
Jackdaw 2 (4%)
Stock Dove 7 (14.5%)
Grey Squirrel 10 (21%)
Empty 10 (21%)

= Total 48

Tawny Owl breakdown: 1x 3 pulli, 6x 2 pulli, 1x 4 eggs, 4x 3 eggs, 7x 2 eggs

SOUTH EAST NOTTS

Tawny Owl 11 (26%)
Jackdaw 7 (16%)
Stock Dove 9 (21%)
Grey Squirrel 15 (35%)
Empty 1 (2%)

= Total 43

Tawny Owl breakdown: 1x 3 pulli, 1x 2 pulli, 6x 1 pulli, 1x 2 eggs, 2x addled/abandoned egg


COMMENTS

• only one Short-tailed Field Vole was found cached
• carrion found included the head of adult Carrion Crow and hind leg of adult hare
• no cached juvenile birds (other than remains of corvids and stock dove) 
• late breeding of resident birds (inc Robin, Song Thrush, Blackbird) means no 1Js for the Tawny Owls to hunt
• total failure on high ground in Lincs Wolds
• seemed to fare worst in mature deciduous woodland
• mature 3yr+ adults breeding in boxes hardly used, perhaps implying they've moved out of home territories in search of food over winter and tried to breed elsewhere?
• in east Lincs it's the worst breeding season since the late 1980s
• of all the other boxes checked by SNRG, only 2 were occupied by Tawny Owls 

Jim Lennon and Adrian Blackburn

Owls

Living in the southwest of the county, the largely arable triangle of countryside south of Newark (bordered by the A46, A1 & A52) had been largely unexplored territory until I joined Jim and Pete S to check a just few of the hundreds of Barn and Tawny Owl nest boxes that Jim monitors across Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire.

Any Barn Owl chicks would not yet be large enough yet to ring, so our focus was the Tawny Owls which start their breeding season much earlier.

The day started pretty well, finding a female brooding two chicks in just the third box we checked. We also found a pair of Barn Owls in one of the boxes we were passing, but since they can abandon their nest if disturbed early in the nesting season, we left them alone.

Unfortunately it was another 4 hours until we found another box occupied by Tawny Owls and with only one chick this proved to be the last of the day.

Both the females were recaptures, one ringed in the same box last year, and the other had also being in the same box in Flintham, but not trapped since 2006!

However not all the other boxes were empty. Among the 21 boxes we visited during the day, we found the white eggs of Stock Doves, the beautiful light blue and brown speckled eggs of the Jackdaw and a few too many kittens of the non-native Grey Squirrel!

Twenty-one boxes is too small a sample to be drawing meaningful conclusions about the season and possible causes, but the cold weather this spring and the wet last summer are both potential candidates. It will be interesting how the national picture looks at the end of the season when meaningful conclusions should be possible.

David

Bungalow Swallows

I do consider myself lucky to live on a street which sees good numbers of Swallows each summer, zipping over my pond and waking me with their calls each morning. These birds presented me with perhaps my easiest nest-find of the season, but considering that their nest, eggs and young are so beautiful and interesting I pounced on the opportunity to learn more about this charismatic species.

As I watched, the adult birds flew straight up the drive and into the tunnel-like entry by the front door of my neighbour's bungalow, amazed at the 'emergency stop' they must perform on every visit to reach their neat nest which they had plastered into the top corner of the passageway.

Below are some photos documenting their progress. Perhaps I might recapture them swooping over my pond for food in the later months of the season?

Ian

 

 

Attenborough CES Visit 4, Sunday 2 June

Gary, Duncan, David, Tom and I carried out the 4th CES visit on Sunday. A fine morning, if a little breezy later on, but unfortunately a poor catch was made. There seemed very few birds moving around resulting in a catch of just 20, including 8 retraps. Main highlights were the season's first juvenile birds: singles of Robin, Dunnock and Long-tailed tit. We also caught a control Garden Warbler and the first Jay the group has caught at the site. Hopefully by the time we do visit 5 there will be a few more juvs about.

Kev

Attenborough CES Visit 2, Sunday 19 May

Like Jim, the late season has affected my posting too it seems... On the second CES session we caught 28 birds in total of which 21 were new and 7 re-traps. Breakdown as follows (new/retrap): Blackbird 2/0, Robin 1/0, Dunnock 0/3, Wren 2/1, Reed Warbler 0/1, Blackcap 2/0, Garden Warbler 1/0, Chiffchaff 3/0, Great Tit 4/0, Long-tailed Tit 3/0, Treecreeper 3/0, Bullfinch 0/1,  Reed Bunting 0/1.

Duncan

Granby, Monday 6 May

As everything's behind this year, this posting should fit the trend...

I went to Granby, with Chris Sharp, for the latest ever netting visit at the feeders in the hope of catching some old retraps. This was partly successful with two Chaffinches from 2010 and a 2008 Yellowhammer. Most birds were in breeding condition. It was also nice to handle a few warblers with Whitethroat being a new species for the site

Totals were 20/15 (new/retraps): Willow Warbler 3/0, Whitethroat 3/0, Blackcap 1/0, Dunnock 1/1, Long-tailed Tit 0/1, Robin 0/1, Tree Sparrow 1/0, Chaffinch 3/6, Yellowhammer 7/5, Reed Bunting 1/1.

Jim

Unusual Blue Tit nest

Christine sent this picture home from work. The Blue Tit has at least 6 small chicks but was not spotted until last Friday, so during nest-building, laying and incubating the bin was in constant use. How the adult has not been burnt or the nest ignited no-one knows. There is now a notice on the bin asking people not to use it and an alternative has been supplied. Christine asked if I wanted to ring them but I don't think there is any need as any fledgling will be easily identifiable by the coughing and wheezing.

Kev

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

Pulli ringing progress

A few pics from Ian of a Blackbird nest (top three) and Robin nest (bottom three).

Attenborough CES Visit 3, Sunday 26 May

CES visit three was completed with a team of Gary, Duncan, Tom, Alex and myself. A glorious morning with hardly a breath of wind. The catch only down slightly because the full sun was on many of the nets - but let's not complain about warm sunshine as we have seen precious little of it for some time. We finished on 30 birds including 8 retraps. It was nice to catch 5 Bullfinch amongst the other usual birds for the site. Attenborough is showing the same trend we noticed at the winter feeding sites; a lack of birds hatched last summer. Let's hope for a good breeding season this year.

Kev

Recent Recoveries

A Long-tailed Tit ringed at Rushcliffe Country Park in November 2012 was found dead not too far from the site in April 2013.

A Siskin also ringed at Rushcliffe Country Park in November 2012 was controlled in Hertfordshire in March 2013 having traveled 125km.

A young Waxwing ringed in Derbyshire in December 2012 was controlled at Clifton in February 2013.

A Lesser Redpoll ringed at Eccles in October 2012 turned up at Rushcliffe Country Park in February after a journey of 183km.

Ian

Turtle Dove nest

Considering the BTO received only fifteen Turtle Dove nest records in 2010 and just eleven in 2011, I am absolutely thrilled to have located an active nest of my favourite and possibly the scarcest of species in Nottinghamshire.

Ian

Attenborough CES Visit 1, Sunday 5 May

Duncan, Mick P, Nick and I along with potential new trainee Alex and visiting ringer Jamie carried out the first CES session of the season last Sunday. The morning started calm and sunny, the breeze picking up slightly towards the end. We caught just under 40 birds including 2 returning Garden Warblers and 2 returning Chiffchaffs. Other warblers caught were Blackcap and Reed Warbler.

Kev

Recent recoveries

A Kestrel chick from Cropwell Butler in June 2010 was found dead under nest box near Langar in March 2013.

A Black-headed Gull chick ringed at Attenborough in June 2010 was found dead on a Dorset beach in April 2013 having travelled a distance of  263km.

A Barn Owl chick ringed at Shelton in June 2005 became a road casualty near Newark in March 2013 and another ringed at Stathern in June 2012 died in an outbuilding in Harby in March 2013.

A Starling ringed as a youngster in Hucknall in June 2012 was  found dead in April 2013 in Hucknall.

A Lesser Redpoll ringed as a youngster in Bestwood in September 2011 was controlled at Warsop, Nottinghamshire in February 2013 and another from Bestwood from October 2012 was found dead in Sutton-in-Ashfield in April 2013.

Perhaps most impressive though was a Blackbird ringed at The Meadows in February 2013 which was resighted by an observer in Suffolk in March 2013. 

 

Ian