Late September sessions

Skylarks end of Holme Pierrepont - Monday 21 September

The weather was calm with very little breeze but with clear skies. The catching rate was ok to start but soon dropped as the sun got higher. It was just Gary and me and we and finished with a catch of 43 including 7 retraps made up of (new/retrap): Robin 3/2, Dunnock 3/0, Chiffchaff 8/1, Blackcap 16/0, Reed Warbler 1/1, Cetti’s Warbler 0/2, Blue Tit 3/0, Lesser Redpoll 1/0, Bullfinch 0/1, Reed Bunting 1/0. The oldest retrap was a Bullfinch from 2018. A much reduced, but not surprising, catch of warblers as we head further into autumn.

Skylarks end of Holme Pierrepont - Monday 28 September

The weather was calm and bright with sunny spells. The team was Gary, Duncan and me. Catching rate of warblers was quite slow as you would expect at this time of year and at this site, but then we found 10 Lesser Redpoll in the nets and decided at about 0900 to switch one of the MP3 players from warbler calls to Lesser Redpoll. This resulted in another 75 Lesser Redpoll being caught, including one ringed 6 days earlier in Yorkshire and a Siskin. We finished with a total catch of 120 including 6 retraps made up of (new/retrap): Robin 0/2, Dunnock 2/0, Wren 2/0, Chiffchaff 7/2, Blackcap 10/0, Reed Warbler 1/0, Coal Tit 0/1, Blue Tit 2/0, Great Tit 2/0, Lesser Redpoll 84/1, Siskin 1/0, Bullfinch 1/0, Chaffinch 1/0, Reed Bunting 1/0. The oldest retrap was a Robin from 2019. The Coal Tit is very interesting as we have not caught one at this site before, or at least since records were computerised in 1996, so to catch one with a ring on was a surprise. Even more intriguing was the fact that it was wearing a ring from an old sequence of A rings and no data has yet been submitted to the BTO for this ring – and it was a bird of the year with 3 old greater coverts (the ring and age confirmed by both Gary and me). We await a report from the BTO once they have chased up the ringer for the ringing details. I mentioned the catch of Lesser Redpoll to Mick P as he was going out to his site at Bestwood the next day. He said he would take his Lesser Redpoll sound lure and subsequently caught 53 and had to switch his player off a couple of times to keep numbers manageable. We thought this would be our last visit of the year here and we did bring back all the poles and guys, but if we get a suitably calm day in the coming days we may venture back with a couple of nets and MP3 players to see if the Lesser Redpolls are still around!

We have been restricted to the Skylarks end of Holme Pierrepont all summer because the car park at the rowing centre that we use to access the Grange end has been either shut during lockdown or opened too late in the morning. It struck me that some of our warbler numbers seemed high and some low this year so I looked on Demon at catches of new birds in the same period over the last three years just at the Skylarks end. Roughly the same number of visits each year, not exactly the same - but not different enough to make some of the significant changes shown below.

The good:
Chiffchaff - 522% increase on 2018 – 213% increase on 2019.
Willow Warbler - 36% increase on 2018 – 44% increase on 2019.

The bad:
Garden Warbler – 35% decrease on 2018 – 31% increase on 2019.

and the ugly:
Lesser Whitethroat – 41% decrease on 2018 in both 2019 and 2020.
Sedge Warbler - 82% decrease on 2018 – 77% decrease on 2019.

Blackcap, Whitethroat and Reed Warbler numbers were similar each year.

Kev

Redpoll & Siskin (K. Hemsley)

Early September ringing sessions

Skylarks end of Holme Pierrepont, Wednesday 2 September

The weather was good with very little breeze and the catching rate was brisk to start but slowed down from mid-morning. It was just Gary and myself and we finished with a catch of 103 including 6 retraps made up of (new/retrap): Blackbird 1/0, Robin 2/2, Dunnock 1/0, Wren 2/0, Willow Warbler 6/0, Chiffchaff 23/0, Blackcap 36/0, Garden Warbler 1/0, Reed Warbler 13/0, Cetti’s Warbler 1/1, Goldcrest 2/0, Blue Tit 2/1, Great Tit 5/0, Long-tailed Tit 0/1, Greenfinch 1/0, Reed Bunting 1/1. The retraps were all recent birds. It was nice to catch another juvenile Cetti’s and and retrap adult from early June. The bulk of the warblers have now passed through other than Chiffchaff, Blackcap and Reed Warblers.

Skylarks end of Holme Pierrepont, Sunday 6 September

The weather was bright with sunny spells and a generally light breeze and catching was steady throughout. The team was Gary, Duncan and me and we finished with a catch of 84 including 8 retraps made up of (new/retrap): Blackbird 0/1, Song Thrush 1/0, Robin 1/1, Dunnock 1/0, Willow Warbler 2/0, Chiffchaff 21/1, Blackcap 25/0, Whitethroat 1/0, Lesser Whitethroat 1/0, Reed Warbler 10/2, Sedge Warbler 1/0, Goldcrest 1/1, Treecreeper 1/0, Blue Tit 3/0, Great Tit 1/0, Long-tailed Tit 1/1, Bullfinch 2/1, Goldfinch 1/0, Greenfinch 1/0, Reed Bunting 1/0. The retraps were all recent birds. The Sedge Warbler was only the third individual caught this year, the worst total ever that I can remember.

Skylarks end of Holme Pierrepont, Thursday 10 September

The weather was calm with variable cloud cover and the odd sunny break and catching was steady throughout. The team was Gary, Duncan and me and we finished with a catch of 108 including 22 retraps made up of (new/retrap): Robin 1/1, Dunnock 2/0, Wren 2/1, Willow Warbler 0/1, Chiffchaff 15/5, Blackcap 38/4, Whitethroat 2/0, Lesser Whitethroat 0/1, Reed Warbler 11/1, Cetti’s Warbler 2/1, Goldcrest 1/2, Blue Tit 3/1, Great Tit 2/0, Long-tailed Tit 3/3, Lesser Redpoll 1/0, Greenfinch 1/0, Chaffinch 1/1, Reed Bunting 1/0. The oldest retrap was a Blue Tit from 2019. The Lesser Redpoll was the earliest record in September in at least 25 years.

Ramsdale, Tuesday 15 September

Duncan, Mick P, Gary and me today. The weather was dead calm all morning but with full sun all the time and the temperature rapidly rising to the mid-twenties, resulting in a fairly low catch with limited species. However a Spotted Flycatcher was nice first thing and also a Sparrowhawk later in the morning. We put up the new line of nets and four of the old line and finished with a catch of 49 including 11 retraps, made up of (new/retrap): Sparrowhawk 1/0, Blackbird 4/1, Wren 3/0, Robin 2/1, Dunnock 1/0, Blackcap 12/1, Whitethroat 1/0, Chiffchaff 17/0, Spotted Flycatcher 1/0, Blue Tit 1/0, Bullfinch 3/0. The retraps were all recent birds.

Skylarks end of Holme Pierrepont, Wednesday 16 September

The weather was calm with variable cloud cover to start but thick cloud and a brisk breeze picked up by 09:00 slowing things down. The team was Gary, Duncan and me and we finished with a catch of 66 including 11 retraps made up of (new/retrap): Song Thrush 1/0 Robin 2/1, Dunnock 6/0, Willow Warbler 1/0, Chiffchaff 9/1, Blackcap 15/0, Reed Warbler 9/1, Cetti’s Warbler 1/0, Goldcrest 1/0, Blue Tit 0/1, Great Tit 2/2, Long-tailed Tit 7/4, Greenfinch 0/1, Reed Bunting 1/0. The Long-tailed Tits were caught as a few singles plus a flock of 7, the biggest flock caught this year since May! The oldest retrap was a Great Tit from 2017, we also retrapped a Greenfinch ringed earlier this year across the river by Tom in his garden. The warblers are all moving south now and the later moving Reed Warblers, Blackcaps and Chiffchaffs were showing in much reduced numbers since last weeks visit.

Kev

Redpoll  at Holme Pierrepont, Spotted Flycatcher and Sparrowhawk at Ramsdale (K. Hemsley)

Owl boxes

I decided to check a few boxes today, just in case any birds had decided to have another breeding attempt. Predictably, a couple of boxes held Stock Doves, but in both the chicks were dead perhaps suggesting their season hasn't been much better than the owls... 

The last box I checked had a pair of roosting adult Barn Owls and whilst it's impossible to prove if they were the ones that raised the single chick I ringed in the same box back in June, there's a good chance and it was satisfying because they had evaded capture on both previous visits this year. Both were old birds, and the male particularly so, being a bird I'd ringed nearby in May 2010 and not encountered again until today. He was a very white bird with a notably long wing of 311!

Pete

Recent(ish) recoveries – owls & kestrels

Deserving their own post, these species, and primarily Barn Owl, make up the largest proportion of our recoveries. We ring a lot of chicks and they often retrapped by ringers or they meet their end where they are readily found beside the road.

Most Barn Owl recoveries involve birds ringed as chicks which are found dead within a year or so, usually less than 20km from where they hatched. A few that do not fall into this category are detailed here.

Longer local recoveries received included birds found after 2yrs (1), 3 yrs (5), 4 yrs (2), 5yrs (2), 6yrs (3) and 9yrs.

Those moving further afield included two chicks from Lincs, one found a year later 29km from where it was ringed and another 36km away after 6 years. One of our chicks moved 22km into Lincs in 174 days and another chick moved 36km within Notts after 3 yrs. A chick from Leics had travelled 40km into Notts after 2 years and 1 chick ringed in Elston in July 2019 was found dead in Bedfordshire in May 2020, some 115km away.

A Tawny Owl chick ringed at Holme Pierrepont in May 2019 was found wounded by a railway in Clipstone 21km to the north in June 2020.

Of the three Kestrel recoveries received, one was local and another old - a chick ringed near Kinoulton in 2011 became a road casualty near Hoby, Leics over 9 years later. The third was also of interest – a chick ringed in June this year was found beside a Heathrow runway a couple of months after fledging having travelled 181km. The finder, Mark Pauline, takes up the story:

“I had come on shift at Heathrow airport at around 06:45 and was asked to carry out an inspection on our southern runway at about 06:50 as soon as I came on shift. We have a piece of equipment called a FOD radar which monitors are runway surface and detects objects that should not be present on the runway surface itself. This particular morning the radar had activated and it shows us an image of what it has detected and it happened to be your Kestrel to which I went onto the runway to retrieve. The bird was whole with a very minor injury and it looked to me as though the kestrel had been jet blasted from an aircraft which does happen if hovering near to the runway edge over the grass areas. For information we do have quite a population of kestrels on the airfield at the moment.”

Jim’s response was as follows:

“I've read up on juvenile kestrel dispersal, and late fledging females are more likely to disperse further afield, and this bird fits that scenario on both counts. This is often driven by poor food supply, and we have very few small mammals breeding this year after the extreme winter floods - in Nottinghamshire - and hence poor breeding from the owls and kestrels. Your photos indicate female. Even so, this movement of 181 km is way beyond the median of 50 km for chick dispersal in their first winter. One fears this will become less unusual with climatic events increasing.”

That catches us up with recoveries from over the past nine months or so.

Pete 

 Kestrel recovered from Heathrow runway (Mark Pauline)
 

Recent(ish) recoveries – non-passerines

The group have received a number of recoveries of non-passerines throughout the year, fairly typical fare, but always interesting as we don’t tend to ring as many as we do songbirds. The plus side on this front, is that it is often easier to get recoveries of these birds as field observations are easier with bigger birds. Barn Owls make up the bulk of what we receive and these will be covered in a separate post.

A familiar sight in our inbox has been the Black-headed Gull, ringed as a chick at Attenborough in 2019, seen on numerous occasions by multiple observers at the Lough, in Cork. Many sightings were reported to us of this bird from January through to May. It may have then moved on to breed, but it will be interesting to see if it returns to winter at the same site again.

A Common Gull, colour ringed as a chick in Norway in 2016, spent the latter part of the winter at Trent Bridge, being seen by Tom in February, along with a couple of other observers.

Tom’s Trent Bridge gull outings usually come with a few Canada Geese thrown in, and there are still many residing there that have been ringed as part of the Nottingham University colour ringing project at their campus in Lenton. Recent sightings include a bird from 2010, and several from 2016-2018. Another was seen at Colwick park, ringed in 2018.

A couple of Swans ringed at Rushcliffe were seen at Attenborough in January. One ringed in 2015, the other in 2018.

The Attenborough Cormorant colony continues to provide decent recoveries. A bird ringed in 2018 has was seen in February on the River Stour in Essex. Another, ringed in 2016 was seen in August, roosting on the Clwyd in Rhyl. This bird is one of the most well travelled of the SNRG ringed cormorants, having been seen in Essex, Kent, The Wirral and Suffolk, and now Wales.

Tom

Colwick Garden Ringing, Sunday 13 September

I’ve been having semi-regular sessions in the garden since about July, after the usual summer hiatus when the garden goes a bit quiet and so I just let the birds get on with raising their young. Having new parental responsibilities of my own means that squeezing in the odd session here and there is very precious indeed.

Young tits, Greenfinches a few other bits and bobs made up the midsummer sessions, and since the end of August, Goldfinch have dominated once again, with the sunflower feeders going down at a rate of knots. Today I caught 26 new Goldfinches, mostly juveniles in various stages of moult. A few Chiffchaffs usually appear in September and I was lucky enough to have the nets up today when one piped up, which was quickly lured down, a ringing tick for the garden, contributing to a good total of 37 birds in a couple of hours.

Aside from numerous 3Js early in the season, the absence of young Blue and Great tits has been notable in the last few sessions. A quick look reveals that I have caught 35 BLUTI so far this year, which is far less than my yearly totals for both 2018 and 2019, further evidence that these species have had a poor year. A positive is that Greenfinch seem to be doing well, with plenty caught in the spring, and a few juveniles appearing in the garden in the last few weeks.

Tom

 Chiffchaff (T. Shields)

 

Recent(ish) recoveries – passerines

We’ve not posted a recovery round up for a while, so we’re going to attempt a bit of a catching up. Below are a few highlights of the passerine recoveries we’ve received since the beginning of the year.

A Sand Martin ringed as a chick at Bagworth Heath in Leicestershire on 14 Aug 2018 was trapped at the Attenborough colony on 16 Jun 2020. A second chick ringed at the same locality on 20 May 2019 was trapped on 7 Jul 2020, and on the same day a bird was caught that had been ringed as a chick in Rutland on 23 May 2019. Bizarrely, we’ve also had a few Sand Martin recoveries through from the mid-1980s, thanks to some historic data having been entered into the system! The six records are all exchanges between Attenborough and other sites in Notts.

A Reed Warbler ringed at Holme Pierrepont on 21 Aug 2019 was caught by a ringer in France 19 days later 851km due south. Another bird, ringed 4 days later, was trapped in Wiltshire on 31 Aug 2020. An individual which had been ringed on its first southward migration at Titchfield Haven on 21 Sep 2019, was caught at Holme Pierrepont as a breeding female on 22 Jul 2020. On the same day, another bird was trapped that had been ringed at Rutland Water on 19 Jun 2019 as an adult. A young bird ringed on 19 Aug 2020 was caught in Gloucestershire 14 days later. At almost 3 years, the longest of the batch was a bird ringed at HPP on 13 Aug 2017 and caught at Pitsford Reservoir, Northants , on 30 Jul 2020.

A Sedge Warbler ringed at Hazelford Island on 17 Jul 2019 was caught by a ringer in France 26 days later 404km to the SSE.

A young Blue Tit ringed at Sutton Bonington on 10 Nov 2019 was trapped at Charnwood Lodge on 7 March 2020 having travelled 12km. Considering this bird may have undergone some dispersal already, it is a little beyond the median distance travelled by a first year bird by March (2km).

Pete

Late August ringing sessions

Skylarks end of Holme Pierrepont, Wednesday 19 August

The weather was good with very little breeze and the catching was steady but rain moved in just as we were about to take down. Gary and I finished with a catch of 81 including 17 retraps made up of (new/retrap): Robin 1/0, Dunnock 3/0, Willow Warbler 2/1, Chiffchaff 14/9, Blackcap 17/1, Garden Warbler 2/0, Whitethroat 7/0, Lesser Whitethroat 3/0, Reed Warbler 8/3, Blue Tit 3/1, Great Tit 3/0, Long-tailed Tit 0/1, Bullfinch 1/1. The oldest retrap was a Willow Warbler from 2015.

Skylarks end of Holme Pierrepont, Monday 24 August

The weather forecast was for overcast conditions with breeze picking up from the west – they lied, bright sun and breeze picking up from the south! Just me on this session so only a few nets in positions best protected from a forecasted westerly breeze. The sun and southerly breeze forced a slightly earlier finish but a reasonable catch of 33 including 3 retraps made up of (new/retrap): Robin 2/0, Wren 1/0, Cetti’s Warbler 1/0, Willow Warbler 3/0, Chiffchaff 5/1, Blackcap 8/0, Garden Warbler 3/0, Whitethroat 0/1, Lesser Whitethroat 3/0, Reed Warbler 3/1, Great Tit 1/0. The retraps were all recent birds but it was nice to catch a juvenile Cetti’s after so many visits with none evident.

Ramsdale, Sunday 31 August

Just Duncan and me today. The weather was dead calm all morning with a period of full sun mid-morning. We put up the most of the new line of nets and three of the old line and finished with a catch of 66 including 11 retraps, made up of (new/retrap): Blackbird 3/0, Dunnock 0/1, Blackcap 9/0, Whitethroat 2/0, Chiffchaff 19/5, Willow Warbler 3/0, Great Tit 1/1, Blue Tit 6/3, Goldcrest 1/1, Bullfinch 5/0, Goldfinch 6/0. The oldest retrap was a Goldcrest from last year.

Kev

Lesser Whitethroat & Ramsdale nets (K. Hemsley)

 

Early August ringing sessions

Ramsdale, Sunday 02/08/20

Just Gary and me today. The weather was a bit breezy but we were still surprised not to catch many birds, although the site did seem strangely quiet with few birds around. We put up just the new line of nets and finished with a catch of 33 including 4 retraps, made up of (new/retrap): Dunnock 1/0, Wren 1/0, Robin 1/0, Blackcap 5/0, Chiffchaff 5/2, Willow Warbler 3/1, Great Tit 1/0, Blue Tit 9/1, Goldfinch 3/0. The oldest retraps were from this year.

Skylarks end of Holme Pierrepont, Thursday 06/08/20

The weather was perfect; to start with very little breeze and the catching was brisk until about 0900. The sun started to break through mid-morning but by then the birds had disappeared. The team was Gary, Duncan and me and we finished with a catch of 71 including 8 retraps made up of (new/retrap): Tree Pipit 1/0, Blackbird 1/0, Robin 2/2, Wren 2/0, Dunnock 1/1, Willow Warbler 5/0, Chiffchaff 6/2, Blackcap 10/1, Garden Warbler 12/1, Whitethroat 7/0, Lesser Whitethroat 1/0, Reed Warbler 8/0, Goldcrest 1/0, Blue Tit 3/0, Bullfinch 3/1, Reed Bunting 1/0. The oldest retrap was a Bullfinch from last year. We noticed a drop in numbers of Chiffchaff and Reed Warblers but it was nice to catch a Tree Pipit next to an mp3 playing mixed warbler calls!

Skylarks end of Holme Pierrepont, Wednesday 12/08/20 

The weather was again perfect to start with but we knew with the forecast that it would be an early finish because of the heat. The temperature started to get a little too high and we closed the nets about 1100 but we still had a very good catch that kept us very busy. The team was Gary, Duncan and me and we finished with a catch of 138 including 10 retraps made up of (new/retrap): Robin 5/0, Wren 1/1, Dunnock 1/0, Willow Warbler 19/0, Chiffchaff 32/7, Blackcap 26/0, Garden Warbler 13/0, Whitethroat 2/0, Lesser Whitethroat 2/0, Reed Warbler 11/2, Sedge Warbler 1/0, Goldcrest 2/0, Blue Tit 5/0, Great Tit 1/0, Long-tailed Tit 1/0, Bullfinch 3/0, Reed Bunting 3/0. The oldest retrap was a Reed Warbler from 2017. 

Kev

 Tree Pipit, Holme Pierrepont, 6 August 2020 (K. Hemsley)

Whitethroat moult

I caught an adult Common Whitethroat today which had arrested its primary moult. It had replaced primaries 9 and 10 on both wings.

According to Moult in birds by H B Ginn and D S Melville “late moulting birds may not finish before migrating (a few may not even start).....”. I didn't inspect the secondaries but they state “S start when P score 20 – 30”, however, they look pretty fresh in the photos.

According to Svennson “Late breeders/moulters of the nominate race sometimes suspend, leaving one or a few SS (and rarely PP) until after autumn migration”.

So this bird seems to follow the advice provided by Ginn and Melville.

Mick P

Ringing updates from end of June & July

An update on some Covid-19 restricted ringing sessions:

Skylarks end of Holme Pierrepont - Saturday 20/06/20
The weather was bright with a light breeze. The team consisted of Gary, Duncan and myself. The catch rate was steady throughout the morning and we finished with a total of 49 birds including 9 retraps made up of (new/retrap): Blackbird 2/0, Song Thrush 2/0, Robin 6/2, Wren 1/1, Dunnock 5/0, Willow Warbler 8/1, Chiffchaff 10/0, Blackcap 2/2, Reed Warbler 1/1, Cetti’s Warbler 0/1, Blue Tit 1/1, Bullfinch 1/0, Reed Bunting 1/0. The oldest retraps were a Cetti’s Warbler and Blackcap both from 2016.

Skylarks end of Holme Pierrepont - Wednesday 01/07/20 The weather was fair with an increasing breeze. The team consisted of Gary, Tom and myself. The catch rate dropped off as the breeze picked up and we finished with a total of 53 birds including 12 retraps made up of (new/retrap): Blackbird 1/0, Song Thrush 1/0, Robin 1/2, Wren 1/0, Dunnock 2/0, Willow Warbler 7/2, Chiffchaff 6/2, Blackcap 10/1, Garden Warbler 1/3, Whitethroat 1/0, Reed Warbler 6/1, Cetti’s Warbler 2/1, Blue Tit 1/0, Great Tit 1/0. The oldest retraps were from last year.

Ramsdale - Sunday 12/07/20The weather was sunny with an increasing breeze. The team consisted of Gary, Duncan and myself. The catch rate dropped off as the breeze picked up and we finished with a total of 32 birds including 2 retraps made up of (new/retrap): Blackbird 2/0, Robin 4/0, Wren 3/0, Dunnock 3/0, Chiffchaff 9/2, Blackcap 3/0, Whitethroat 2/0, Goldcrest 1/0, Treecreeper 1/0, Great Tit 1/0, Linnet 1/0. The retraps were both from the previous visit.

Skylarks end of Holme Pierrepont - Wednesday 15/07/20
The weather forecasts had been very inaccurate in the last week or so and suddenly changed the day before this trip to suggest we would be rained off. We went ahead anyway and we were not rained off and had a good session in mostly overcast but quite calm conditions. We had a team out consisting of Gary, Duncan and myself. We ended with a decent catch of 66 including 9 retraps made up of (new/retrap): Blackbird 1/0, Wren 5/0, Dunnock 0/1, Willow Warbler 1/1, Chiffchaff 9/1, Blackcap 6/0, Whitethroat 11/0, Lesser Whitethroat 1/0, Reed Warbler 13/6, Sedge Warbler 1/0, Blue Tit 2/0, Great Tit 3/0, Treecreeper 1/0, Greenfinch 1/0, Chaffinch 1/0, Reed Bunting 1/0. The oldest retrap was a Reed Warbler from 2017. We were a little surprised to hear a Cuckoo calling this morning.

Ramsdale - Sunday 19/07/20
The team consisted of Gary, Alex, Mick P and myself. On the last visit I identified a new site for a net line west of the usual line, this area was much more open and the vegetation lower. With a team of four from the start (a big team in the current circumstances) we set the usual nets (126m in length) plus a new line (102m in length). It had rained over night so everywhere was wet but as we set nets the skies cleared and there was only a slight breeze. We finished with a excellent total of 113 birds including 4 retraps made up of (new/retrap): Blackbird 3/0, Robin 9/0, Dunnock 3/0, Chiffchaff 31/2, Willow Warbler 6/0, Blackcap 19/1, Garden Warbler 2/0, Whitethroat 7/0, Treecreeper 0/1, Blue Tit 1/0, Great Tit 5/0, Goldfinch 21/0, Linnet 2/0. The oldest retraps were from last year. The new line was 20% shorter than the old line of nets but caught over 60% of the birds!

Skylarks end of Holme Pierrepont - Wednesday 22/07/20 The weather was perfect, overcast and very little breeze so we were hopeful of a very good catch. We had a team out consisting of Gary, Duncan and myself but despite the good conditions the catch was a little disappointing for the time of year. We ended with a catch of 63 including 7 retraps made up of (new/retrap): Blackbird 2/0, Song Thrush 1/0, Robin 1/0, Wren 3/1, Dunnock 1/0, Willow Warbler 1/2, Chiffchaff 11/0, Blackcap 7/0, Garden Warbler 1/0, Whitethroat 1/1, Reed Warbler 16/3, Goldcrest 1/0, Blue Tit 6/0, Great Tit 2/0, Reed Bunting 2/0. The oldest retrap was a Willow Warbler from 2018 and we did control 2 Reed Warblers.

Skylarks end of Holme Pierrepont - Thursday 30/07/20
The weather was again perfect, at least to start with very little breeze but the sun started to break through mid-morning which slowed things down. We had a team out consisting of Gary, Duncan and myself and this time had an excellent catch of 103 including 9 retraps made up of (new/retrap): Kingfisher 1/0, Robin 0/1, Wren 2/1, Dunnock 1/0, Willow Warbler 6/0, Chiffchaff 22/0, Blackcap 10/0, Garden Warbler 10/0, Whitethroat 5/3, Lesser Whitethroat 2/0, Reed Warbler 17/1, Blue Tit 3/2, Great Tit 2/0, Bullfinch 8/0, Chaffinch 1/0, Goldfinch 1/0, Reed Bunting 3/1. The oldest retrap was a Reed Bunting from 2019.

After our third visit to Holme Pierrepont in July, I looked at the number of individuals caught and compared the numbers to last years figures for the first three July visits– same number of visits, same number of nets, same net sites and same number of hours.

The losers at this stage this year seem to be:
Blue Tit – overall down 61%, juveniles down 68%
Bullfinch – overall down 100%, juveniles down 100%
Garden Warbler – overall down 62%, juveniles down 75%
Great Tit – overall down 50%, juveniles down 50%
Reed Bunting – overall down 70%, juveniles down 80%
Sedge Warbler – overall down 88%, juveniles down 75%
Willow Warbler – overall down 44%, juveniles down 80%

Unfortunately there do not seem to be any definite winners, although Dunnocks may be doing slightly better that last year but we do not catch many so the sample size is low.

Species with numbers roughly the same as last year are: Blackcap, Chiffchaff, Reed Warbler, Robin, Whitethroat and Wren.

Our fourth visit in July this year did produce the first catch of Bullfinch and a nice number of Garden Warbler so we wait to see what the final figures for the season will look like.

Kev

 Juvenile Goldcrest at Ramsdale, juvenile Reed Warbler with a fault bar at HPP, juvenile Kingfisher at HPP (K. Hemsley)

Owls & moths

Well the moth season hasn't been much better than the Barn Owl season, but I had an interesting collision of hobbies yesterday. A month ago when checking Barn Owl boxes, I'd collected some pellets to pull apart with the children. These remained in a tupperware container on the side, forgotten about but yesterday the kids said 'dad - something's hatched out of the pellets!' Sure enough, buzzing around in the box were about a dozen micro moths called Monopis laevigella (sometimes called 'Skin Moths'). The larvae of this species feed on detritus of animal origin, including carcases, faeces and pellets. Their spent pupal cases can be seen sticking out of the pellets.

Pete

Ramsdale Park Gof Club, Sunday 14 June

The first visit of this strange year was made to Ramsdale on Sunday by Duncan, Gary, Mick P and me. The rides needed quite a few overhanging spurs of blackberry and hawthorn cutting back but no major clearance as we were using the site into November last year. It was a very misty start to the day but with only a slight breeze. The sun broke through just before we took down and it became very warm.

The catch rate was steady throughout the morning and we ended with a total of 46 including 4 retraps made up of (new/retrap): Blackbird 0/1, Dunnock 1/1, Wren 0/1, Robin 3/0, Blackcap 4/0, Garden Warbler 1/0, Lesser Whitethroat 4/0, Chiffchaff 9/1, Blue Tit 13/0, Great Tit 2/0, Linnet 5/0.

The oldest retrap was a Chiffchaff from 2018. Most of the resident species caught were juveniles and the migrants mainly adults with a few juveniles. Nice to get a few Linnets again at the only site we regularly catch them.

Kev

 male Linnet (K. Hemsley)

Holme Pierrepont, Tuesday 9 June

The second visit of the year was made to the Skylarks end of Holme Pierrepont on Tuesday by Duncan, Gary and me. Perfect weather conditions, overcast and still. We put up all the usual nets and caught steadily all morning. The Willow Warbler chicks in the nest we found near the base on the last visit had gone, hopefully fledged successfully.

We ended with 76 birds caught including 9 retraps, made up of (new/retrap): Song Thrush 1/0, Robin 7/0, Dunnock 1/2, Wren 4/0, Blackcap 7/0, Garden Warbler 2/0, Whitethroat 0/1, Cetti’s Warbler 1/0, Reed Warbler 2/1, Chiffchaff 18/0, Willow Warbler 5/3, Blue Tit 9/0, Great Tit 7/1, Goldfinch 2/1, Greenfinch 1/0.

The Goldfinch retrap was originally ringed last year in Tom’s garden on the other side of the river. The oldest retrap was a Willow Warbler from 2016. The Bittern was seen again overhead and was not popular with the nesting gulls! The photograph shows the state the net rides after they had spent such a long time under water during the winter floods. Now a layer of dry mud covers the ground and seems to have killed some of the bramble and supressed growth of other vegetation, leaving the rides nice and open for us.

Kev

Box-checking in the Vale, 30/31 May

Finished my first round of Barn Owl and Kestrel box checks over the weekend and the second half wasn't quite as productive as the first with several boxes down. Nevertheless, it looks like I have seven Barn Owl broods to return to but just two of Kestrel.

A bonus came when a friend with a private box sent me a photo of a large Tawny Owl chick looking out of the entrance hole. Knowing that this was not only late in the season, but also that these chicks were likely to start branching at any time, I popped round immediately and ringed a healthy brood of three good-sized Tawnys - almost certainly the only ones I'll ring this year having missed the main season due to lockdown. Later that night, the owner wandered out to watch the sunset and took the marvellous photo below showing one chick starting to explore!

The pie chart shows the breakdown of my box occupancy this year.

Pete

 

 Barn Owl

 Kestrel clutch

 Stock Doves

 'branching' Tawny Owl chick