All Quiet on the Western Front

 

At first glance, Stanford Reservoir in early March at the Point, is quiet and tranquil, an ideal spot for a bit  of bird watching.

However, turn the corner on a Saturday morning and you will find a very different story, a veritable hive of activity:

 Kate working, Adam watching

 Stuart Keeping the fire going 

Mick and Dawn and a load of mud.

Yes, this is the mighty SRG enjoying a spot of scrub bashing, the maintenance work we carry out to maintain a good breeding environment for our warblers. This year, we have worked from the Railtrack out to the Point. 

We recently had a Blackcap BCD3425 ringed at Stanford in September 2024 which was retrapped on 10 February 2025 at the southern tip of Gibraltar, thanks to Mark Cutts and the team at Gibraltar Bird Observatory! So we know the warblers are coming, making their way north, but as yet not much evidence of their arrival; we are just waiting for the returning Chiffchaffs to start calling to know that we are in business. Watch this space for more ringing shenanigans!

Rejoice!

 

Be Glad, for the 2024 Annual Report is now available at no extra cost from: http://www.stanfordrg.org.uk/srgstats/2024-annrep.pdf  

Peter

 

End of Year Round Up

The end of the ringing year is in sight as the nights get longer and the guys lie frozen on the ground. The annual report will be out in the new year, so this is a brief update about recent activities to keep our loyal readers informed (and indeed enthralled!).

So, the warblers all left us by the end of October, with only an occasional misdirected, or possibly overwintering, Chiffchaff turning up in the nets. Our first Redwing were ringed on 12 October, and so far we have ringed 366; a reasonable total but possibly largely due to the number of sessions rather than a large numbers of birds. Certainly for the last couple of weeks we have had nets up in the dark, resulting in a couple of rounds of Redwing followed by not too much. Fieldfare numbers have been just about adequate (11):

Down from Scandinavia- Fieldfare, such beautiful birds

One of our classic winter finches, Lesser Redpoll (or possibly, just plain Redpoll according to the latest classification) have been disappointing  at only 32. However, there have been a few interesting records. Firstly, on two separate occasions single Siskins were ringed, a species we do not get every year. These were the first since 2020:

Male Siskin... what a stonker!

Next, our Secretary Adam, who for many years has denied even the existence of Firecrest as a species, was finally rewarded with extracting and ringing one on 24 October, much to the relief of the whole group:

Hooray! A Firecrest for AGH

This was the first since 2020. Even more unusual, a single House Sparrow was ringed, the first since 2017; not quite as exciting perhaps, but a real rarity for us:

Wow! Very welcome at the Reservoir. An actual House Sparrow

Finally top of the rarity charts were three Yellow-browed Warblers ringed in September and October, a site record:

Yellow Browed Warbler... one of three!

The annual report will give full details of our ongoing shenanigans, so keep an eye out for the full story of the ringing year... it's been a funny old year with very changeable weather, but the group has pulled together and worked hard. Next up is scrub bashing. As always if you have some time to spare and would like to take part, contact details are on the website, where you also will find previous reports.

Stanstock V

 

Stanstock V has now been and gone, and we are well on the road to recovery, both physically and mentally. Instead of the traditional week of non stop ringing action, we decided to extend it to two weeks because... well, why not?

Anyway, the first week was rather windswept and rainy, but we did manage some ringing on each day, based primarily on the Railtrack, plus an occasional ringing station at the Bench and trips to the Northants reedbed.

 

From left to right on the Railtrack: Peter B, Josh, Jo, Emily, Heather, Chris H (scribing). Mick lurking in the background. 

During the two weeks we ringed 3,521 new birds, and retrapped 39, including 8 British controls plus one colour ringed Black-headed Gull spotted by Chris H. The species breakdown for new birds was as follows: Blackcap 1,811, Whitethroat 482, Reed Warbler 276, Sedge Warbler 187, Willow Warbler 166, Chiffchaff 158, Garden Warbler 101, Robin 90, Lesser Whitethroat 66, Swallow 24, Starling 24, Wren 20, Reed Bunting 17, Blue Tit 17, Stock Dove 15, Grasshopper Warbler 13, Long Tailed Tit 10, Goldcrest 10, Redstart 5, Great Tit 4, Kingfisher 3, Dunnock 3, Acredula type subspecies of Willow Warbler 2, Tree Pipit 2, Spotted Flycatcher 2, Song Thrush 2, Greenfinch 2, and single Whinchat, Water Rail, Treecreeper, Linnet, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Goldfinch, Cetti's Warbler, Bullfinch, and Blackbird.

The general consensus was that, despite the weather, it was a strong two weeks without quite matching the highs of the previous years. However, perhaps the standout bird was a juvenile Water Rail, which apparently wandered into the net at Box 8:

 

Only the second ever ringed at Stanford!

Here are some other unusual birds, which we hope the casual reader might enjoy... we certainly did!

 

Juvenile Whinchat

 

Love a Tree Pipit!

 

 

Blimey! C'est un stonker, non? Full male Redstart. 

We just about staggered on for the full two weeks, although at times this did involve a bit of huddling under Adam's gazebo, but we are all friends and as this picture shows, we were hardly likely to starve, or indeed dry out. Roll on the rest of migration!

Barbeque night at Stanstock in August 2024. Cheese and biscuits courtesy of Chris H, port courtesy of Jade.

Mid Year Round-up '24

This year has been, well let's say challenging, in terms of weather. It's been various combinations of wet, cool and windy for most of the spring and into summer. This has limited opportunities and access, but now- in mid July- it has, to some extent settled down. Over the last 10 days, we have pretty much covered the main ringing areas, from Blower's Bay, to the Railtrack, out to Point, and into the Leicestershire Reed-bed. Here are some pictures from over the last week, to give an idea of the sites and range of activities:

 

Mick, Pete B and our new trainee Josh in action in the Bay

 

Line of four nets at Point... birds waiting to be extracted and ringed.

 

 

Mick checking the credentials on a French Reed Warbler, breeding here in the Northants reed-bed.

 

Meanwhile over in the Leics reed-bed, the team of Adam, Dave, Stuart and Josh were busy putting up nets and getting some nice birds too (see above, I didn't think this one needed a caption). And in the same day as the French Reed Warbler, they controlled a Belgian one. Zut alors!

 

 

With love, all the way from Belgium

Adam and the nest box team have also been busy, ringing lots of Blue and Great Tits, but some rather more glamorous species too:

 

Destined for beauty, but possibly not quite there  yet; three Barn Owl chicks.

Finally, here is a summary of the birds ringed thus far. The first number is for birds ringed, the second in brackets for retraps: Barn Owl 7, Blackbird 15 (33), Blackcap 212 (72), Blue Tit 365 (95) Bullfinch 5 (4), Carrion Crow 1, Cetti's Warbler 2 (19), Chaffinch 21 (3), Chiff 150 (98), Common Tern 11, Dunnock 62 (93), Garden Warbler 45 (67), Goldcrest 8 (1), Great Spotted Woodpecker 3 (3), Great Tit 198 (65), Goldfinch 29 (3), Greenfinch (1), Jackdaw 19, Jay 1, Kingfisher 1, Lapwing 4, Lesser Whitethroat 54 (11), Linnet 29 (11), Long Tailed Tit 14 (23), Mute Swan 1, Pied Wagtail 4, Redwing 1, Reed Bunting 60 (66), Reed Warbler 142 (95), Robin 59 (34), Sedge Warbler 47 (64), Song Thrush 7 (27), Spotted Flycatcher 1, Stock Dove 3, Swallow 22, Treecreeper 20 (2), Whitethroat 70 (61), Willow Warbler 40 (58), Wren 56 (35).

So that is 39 species so far. The record for the site is 69 so there is some way to go as yet... watch this space. 

‘Purple’ Patch

Chris, our resident sightings officer has logged up another stonker, and here he tells us all about it!

Its been a solid start to the year with well over 115 species recorded so far at Stanford with some quality birds in March and early April including Firecrest (the first since 2020) and Sandwich Tern (first since 2021). This ‘purple patch’ continued (literally) when I found Stanford’s second ever Purple Heron on April 9th.
Whilst checking for Reed Warblers in the Leicestershire reedbed a large heron suddenly got up from the middle of it with my initial reaction being ‘that’s dark’. I panicked as it flew away from me towards Keepers Lodge Bay so I went for the camera but thankfully it circled back around and eventually landed back in the Leicestershire reedbed – a few flight record shots were obtained and the identification confirmed of the second ever Purple Heron at Stanford. 

 It then settled back in to the reedbed and despite several birders patiently waiting that evening it was only seen briefly once for the rest of the day.
Mick Townsend and Pete Bateup had the bird again the following morning so I decided to do a quick lunchtime check around the reedbed. I was lucky enough to relocate the Heron in trees at the Point where it spent much of the afternoon sheltering from a strong wind with occasional rain and I was able to get some further images, albeit distant.

Key ID points

    • Overall appearance of a dark heron, much darker than Grey Heron.
    • Black neck stripes were obvious in flight and when sat in trees, especially when preening and stretching.
    • Crown dark, almost blackish looking at distance.
    • Side of head and neck a reddish-brown colour, back dark grey.
    • Purple / dark patch at the bend of the wing (obvious in images).
    • Darkish underparts seemingly running into the thighs.
    • In flight purple / grey wing-coverts were obvious with a less obvious contrasting appearance than in Grey Heron.
    • Long, dagger like yellowish bill which gave the impression that it was an extension of the head / forehead (i.e., running from the crown into the bill with no deviation).
    • Feet and legs – yellowish in colour protruding in flight, long looking toes which looked disorganised and untidy (also seen in the images).

This bird was an adult and constitutes the 8th record for Leicestershire and Rutland and the 22nd for Northamptonshire. The only other record for Stanford was an adult on the 16th April 2011.

Chris Hubbard

Back on the Road Again

What did we do in our holidays? Wandered through mud, wind, rain more mud and more rain. This is the lot of the Scrub Bashers as we maintain the warbler habitat around Stanford Reservoir. Despite a consistently grim late winter, we did actually get out every weekend, and cleared growth from the Feeders in Blower's Bay through to the Point reed bed:

Heather and Jo in action at Box 20 ride

 

We pack up from the beginning of April, and actually get out to start ringing, a great relief all round. To date, we have had four sessions, with a total of 93 new birds and 117 retraps (plus one UK control, a Blackcap). Species from distant lands to arrive so far are Sedge Warbler, Lesser Whitethroat, Blackcap, Chiffchaff, and Willow Warbler.

 

Lesser Whitethroat freshly back from Sub-Saharan Africa

 

It is particularly nice when birds we ringed in previous years come back to us. Returnees thus far are Sedge Warbler (1), Blackcap (6), Willow Warbler (13) and Chiffchaff (13)

 

Willow Warbler... come to Stanford for the long summer days

 

Anyway, we are looking forward to the return of various summer visitors, including Reed Warbler, Grasshopper Warbler, Whitethroat, Cuckoo (it would be nice to ring one this year!),Wagtails and Pipits, and really any number of possibilities. The birds will soon be settling down to breeding, so watch this  space for more ringing related shenanigans. 

We are out most Saturdays, weather permitting, so do come and say hello, if you are interested in our work.