Monday 8 May 2023

Back in Business in 2023

 We are now back to our usual activities, ringing on Saturdays, plus midweek sessions from the SRG (Senior Retired Gentlemen). As I write, it is lovely to see our warblers arriving, and we have now ringed good numbers of Blackcap, Whitethroat, Chiffchaff and Willow Warblers, with smaller numbers of Lesser Whitethroat, Garden Warbler, Sedge Warbler and Reed Warbler.

It is particularly nice to see birds we ringed in previous years returning, Whitethroat and Chiffchaff seem to be very site faithful. Anyway, they are all singing at the tops of their voices, and generally getting on with producing the next generation of birds. Excellent.

Unfortunately Grasshopper Warblers have not been heard or ringed. It would be a shame to lose these as a breeding species, although numbers elsewhere are good. However, we have ringed, a couple of unusual species (for Stanford anyway). At the Lodge, a Mistle Thrush nest was spotted by Steve, one of our sharp eyed birders. Thanks to Jim, the owner, we were able to access the nest and extract the only pullus and ring it:

Only the third Mistle Thrush ringed at Stanford, and the first since 1984! The other unusual bird was this Mallard:

The first since 2011! It was found grazing scattered seed at the feeders with a drake, and flew up directly into a net, to be promptly extracted by Mick. Of the two, I don't know which was the most surprised.

These two birds make up for a slightly slow turnout this year, so it is all to play for; autumn is really the time for Stanford to shine, so we are hoping to rack up a good number of species in 2023.



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