Warbler recoveries, France 2009

The latest recovery information from the BTO includes four warblers ringed within a few days of each other in 2009 that were recovered in France the following month. Click below for full details.


2009 recoveries and controls report

A New Dawn Arrives At Stanford

Anticipating that it would turn windy by mid morning, we arrived at 0500 hrs to clear skies, with little or no breeze, to operate our standard net runs whilst based on the disused railtrack. With very little bird movement we managed a creditable 11 new birds, (which included 3 Garden Warblers, 2 Whitethroat and a Lesser Whitethroat) and 27 retraps in four hours before the wind curtailed the mist net operation. Making his first visit (hopefully of many) to the ringing group was Mike Alibone, the Northamptonshire Recorder and his account of the morning can be found here: link

With the taking down of the mist nets left to a chosen few, a round of the nest boxes was undertaken by the remainder of the group which resulted in a  total of 135 pulli being ringed - one Tawny Owl, 74 Blue Tit, 55 Great Tit and 5 Tree Sparrow

As well as Mike joining us for the morning we also met Dawn, our latest recruit, who seems to have enjoyed the experience:

Tawny Owl Chick snuggles up to Dawn

April At Stanford

April is always a relatively quiet time at Stanford as the resident birds and returning migrants set up their territories and remain fairly sedentary.  Consequently, catches are usually quite small and the expectation of up to 15 new birds a session is the norm.  Although the month was dry, we did experience several windy mornings which scuppered our activities but despite this two or three of us did manage a total of eight ringing sessions which resulted in 138 new birds being ringed - a record for April - of 24 species.

The numbers of warblers are encouraging with new birds (and retraps in brackets) as follows:
Sedge Warbler 14 (10)
Reed Warbler 2 (5)
Lesser Whitethroat 1
Whitethroat  6 (9)
Garden Warbler 1 (1)
Blackcap 14 (2)
Chiffchaff 11 (7)
Willow Warbler 15 (24)

Also encouraging were the numbers of
Tree Sparrow 13 (7)
Linnet 16 (1)
Reed Bunting 10 (31)

Full species summary

Relaxing between net rounds

Interesting retraps this month included two Long-tailed Tits from 2005 and 2006 whilst the returning migrants consisted of three Chiffchaffs, twelve Willow Warblers (with two of the these having been ringed as adults in 2007),  a Reed Warbler ringed in 2003 and another in 2006. 

However, the star bird so far is Whitethroat R 650913.  Originally ringed as a 4 female on 24/7/04 it is 95 days short of the European longevity record for this species which we currently hold at Stanford.

However this bird is older by at least a year as it was ringed as an adult whereas the current record is of a bird ringed as a juvenile. 

 With not much flying about, we did look skywards on one occasion to see this

Red-flanked Bluetail ?

First Whitethroat of the Year

Just four group members turned up at 0600 hrs for the first Saturday morning session (9th April) of the new season at Stanford. A total of 15 nets were erected on this sunny, cloudless day with no wind until later in the morning. With lots of birds about it was good to see plenty of Linnets.  In the last two or three years Linnets have increased considerably at the Reservoir and their numbers are approaching those of the 1980's.
Chiffchaff and Willow Warblers were also in evidence and Reed Buntings seemed to be singing from every available perch.

We ringed 22 new birds and processed 23 (retraps) as follows:
 
Wren (1) - Dunnock 4 - Blackbird 1 (1) - Song Thrush (1) - Sedge Warbler (1) - Whitethroat (1)
Blackcap 2 - Chiffchaff 1 - Willow Warbler 4 (4) - Long-tailed Tit 1 - Blue Tit 1 (1) - Great Tit 1 (1)
Tree Sparrow 2 (1) - Chaffinch 2 (5) - Linnet 2 - Reed Bunting 1 (6)


The retrap data proved to be interesting as the male Whitethroat (ringed 3J in 2009) is the earliest ever recorded at Stanford. The Song Thrush and one of the Willow Warblers were originally ringed by us in 2007 and two of the retrap Chaffinches had not been retrapped since their original ringing in 2006 and 2008 respectively.

Sight records of interest included singles of Curlew and 'Commic' Tern, a number of Swallows and Sand Martins, four Yellow Wagtails and at least seven singing Sedge Warblers (up from the first single bird heard last Saturday 2nd April).

MJT/JGC
                                               

          

     

Whose Tree Sparrow Is This?

Mick and I decided to have a quiet morning's ringing for four hours at Stanford to have a break from the ride clearing and scrub bashing of recent weeks.  We set up the three nets at the Feeder Station and were rewarded with 24 new birds, 28 retraps and a control Tree Sparrow.
The tally was:
Great Spotted Woodpecker 1
Dunnock (2)
Coal Tit 1
Blue Tit 9 (13)
Great Tit 8 (8)
Tree Sparrow 2 (3 + 1 control)
Chaffinch 2 (1)
Reed Bunting 1 (1)
The retrap Reed Bunting was one of 5 pullus ringed in June 2006

Control Tree Sparrow TL22946

We were also rewarded with a reasonable view of a Muntjac

While the Cats are Away

 
With Masai Mick enjoying a three week sojurn in Costa Rica, one trainee doing the same in Sri Lanka, yet another trainee carrying out extensive building repairs and yours truly recovering from a fall on the ice which put my recovery from a knee replacement operation back several weeks, the number of troops available for the annual ride clearance and scrub bash at Stanford has been severely depleted in recent weeks - or so you would have thought but our ever-resourceful Head Chef press-ganged her neighbours into turning out in the cold and rain to assist.  So many thanks to Sue and Malc for all their efforts.

WOW a Wall Of Warblers. A review of 2010.

Mick Townsend reflects on the best year ever for the Stanford Ringing Group ~

Stanford Reservoir - Report For 2010