Early Summer Round Up

Spring is now over with its rain and winds and we are now into summer, still with the wind, but no rain... so probably an improvement. The mighty SRG have rallied to the cause and we are all enjoying the regular Saturday and occasional midweek sessions. The days are still lengthening, but we (almost) relish the 0430 starts and the cold mornings. Surely it will warm up soon? So far we have ringed 791 birds of 31 species, a good start to the year.

Our residents are busy producing their young, and we are starting to pick up the occasional juvenile. Most of the tit boxes on both sides of the reservoir have produced good numbers. It is always nice to see young Robins fledged and getting ringed: 

To make the most of the long northern summers, our breeding warblers have returned, with the sad exception of Grasshopper Warblers who seem to have forsaken us as a breeding bird this year. All the others are back.

   

Sedge Warbler- newly returned

It is particularly nice to see birds we ringed in previous years returning to Stanford. Thus far, the number of returns are: Lesser Whitethroat 1, Blackcap 5, Sedge Warbler 6, Garden Warbler 8, Willow Warbler  10, Chiffchaff 11, Whitethroat 20 and Reed Warbler 28. 

Reed Warblers overwinter in West Africa. The challenges of flying and navigating 3,500 miles for a bird which only weighs 10 grams are fairly mind boggling, so we are always delighted when they arrive. The oldest returnee so far was ringed as an adult in 2017, therefore has made the journey at least 13 times, meaning that it has covered in excess of 45,000 miles. When I first drafted this blog, I checked my calculations twice, as it seems such an outlandish number, but what an amazing feat. To finish off, here is one of our favourite birds. also recently returned from Africa, from just south of the Sahara!

Lesser Whitethroat, always a delight!