Sabine's Gull- A New Bird for Stanford Reservoir!

Our keen eyed Birder-in Chief, Chris Hubbard, has been out and about at dawn and dusk, eyeing up the gull roost at Stanford. This has paid off, now read on... 
 

I was out checking the gull roost late afternoon on Monday 26th October. I had already found
an adult Mediterranean Gull and the light was starting to go a little. The gulls started to
move west towards the dam which gave an opportunity for a final close in check before
dark.
The first bird I got on was a small, dark looking gull which stood out clearly against the
Black-headed and Common Gulls. Once the scope was on it, I immediately identified it as a
first-winter Sabine’s Gull. A little bit of panic than ensued as I wanted to get some record
images through my scope but I had lost by phone adapter. I managed to do this, got home
and put the news out.
The bird was still present the following morning when it then left the roost. It then returned
every evening (up to and including Friday 30th) over which time many visiting birders enjoyed the bird.

Stanford's Sabine's in all its glory

 Key identification points:

• Small gull – somewhere between Little and Black-headed in size
• Grey / brownish upper-parts with some scaly effect but not extensive and only noted briefly in the morning light
• Grey / brownish neck and whitish face extending to breast
• Bill small and blackish
• Diagnostic tricolour wing pattern in flight and when preening
• White secondary skirt and white under-parts
• Elegant in flight– tern like
• Slightly forked tail when seen in flight

Sabine’s Gulls are a highly pelagic bird, normally migrating south through the Atlantic. This
bird is likely to have been displaced following the recent storms.
This is the 10th record for Leicestershire & Rutland, the 18th record for Northamptonshire and
the first ever for Stanford Reservoir!
Chris Hubbard

Stanstock VII

 'It is a truth universally acknowledged, that any bird ringer in the East Midlands must be in need of camping out at the end of summer and ringing for the whole week'. 

So wrote Jane Austin in 1813, and over two hundred years later, it hasn't changed. From Friday 14th to Sunday 23rd August we met up for our now traditional celebration of migration at Stanford Reservoir. Nets were opened up every morning and ringing carried out from Safari to Box 8, plus the Track, with occasional forays into the reed bed at The Point (and all points in-between). The initial Friday saw the end of the last of the three summer heatwaves, and in general the weather settled down with only occasional rain; we were able to ring every day. In contrast to previous years, the grand total of 1,769 birds ringed was quite modest, it seems likely that overnight showers limited migration, but the selection of birds ringed was still remarkable:

Blackcap 441, Whitethroat 398, Reed Warbler 180, Chiffchaff 177, Sedge Warbler 160, Willow Warbler 144, Blue Tit 45, Lesser Whitethroat 41, Robin 31, Long Tailed Tit 29, Grasshopper Warbler 18, Garden Warbler 16, Goldcrest 16, Wren 13, Great Tit 10, Dunnock 10, Reed Bunting 8, Tree Creeper 8, Redstart 5, Kingfisher 4, Blackbird 2, Common Tern 2, plus single Cetti's Warbler, Chaffinch, Goldfinch, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Kestrel, Moorhen, Song Thrush, Tree Pipit, Wood Pigeon, Wryneck and Yellow Wagtail.

So, we were delighted to ring our two main target species, neither of which we encountered last year! 

 Lovely Tree Pipit, only our sixteenth in 50 years of ringing 

 Even rarer the seventh ever Wryneck

As always, a good time was had by all, topped off by our now traditional Cheese and Port Evening, organised by KEM and MJG:

Class of '26: KEM, AGH, MJG, SH, DMN, HJG and EMB ready to party!

We are now back to regular weekend ringing, so do feel free to come and say hello, we are out most Saturdays at Stanford Reservoir in Blowers Bay. Autumn is now coming and we look forward to some interesting warblers, finches and thrushes. Watch this space!

PMN 

Half Yearly Catch Up

Incredible as it seems we are already well past the summer solstice, so now that we have packed away our Druidic robes for another year it is time to see what the group has been up to. Spring and Summer tend to be slow as returning birds keep a low profile while breeding and the end of the year migrants are yet to turn up. Despite heatwaves (we are currently in our third), the group has been out for 31 sessions; most weekends and the occasional mid weeker. We have ringed all the way from the Apple ride in Blowers Bay round to the Northants Reed Bed plus the Leicester Paddock and Reed Bed. 

We have ringed 37 species to give a total of 1,314 new birds, an excellent effort! The most common species is, of course, our old friends the Blackcaps (228) followed by Blue Tits (155).  All our warblers are finally here, with a promising population of six adult Grasshopper Warblers, so that looks like three breeding pairs... fingers crossed.

 

Finally...  

However we were starting to despair about Lesser Whitethroats which normally arrive from April onwards, but there was no sign of them until the end of June, when three juveniles and an adult were ringed, which came as some relief, as we all have a soft spot for these lovely little birds.

 Kingfisher were a bit slow to get going too, most years we get to ring about a half dozen or so, so again delighted to have one turn up in the 60' net in the Paddock, clearly on the way to somewhere important. This was a young female, hopefully there will be a couple more nest-mates coming our way. 

At the end of July migration starts and we are all looking forward to that. Stanstock, our annual week long celebration of all things migratory, starts on Saturday 15th August, it's not really all that far away. Time to unpack tents and check inflatable mattresses. Can't wait! 

PMN 

Spring into Summer

After an excellent April, May has proved to be a bit of a let down with only 438 new birds ringed compared to last years 527, against a best ever total of 687 back in 2022.The reason for this drop in numbers can be put down to the lack of success with our nest boxes. We have had large numbers of nest boxes predated this year which has resulted in about a 50% reduction in Great Tit pulli and 66% reduction in Blue Tits. 

Other than that, adult numbers are about the same as usual, except for Lesser Whitethroat; we are yet to catch one this year and by now we are usually in double figures, which is a bit concerning. On the plus side, we seem to have two pairs of breeding Grasshopper Warblers, a species which has not bred at Stanford since 2021.  

 A very welcome surprise for 2026!

However, the undoubted highlight of the month was a Nightingale, caught on the 23rd May in the woods behind the rail-track ringing station, the first since 1994 and only the second ringed on site. 

The other bit of good news is that after floating out two more tern rafts late last month we have Common Terns breeding on all three and for the first time, a Black-headed Gull has bred on the reservoir and has thus far hatched its eggs. Fingers crossed. On the Leicester side, Water Rail took up residence in the large reed bed and have presumably bred. If so this will only be the second time they have been recorded breeding.

MJT 

Ring-necked Duck – Second Record for Stanford Reservoir – or Perhaps Not!

Ring-necked Duck at Stanford

 

Steve Nichols and I have often talked about the lack of Ring-necked Duck records at Stanford, especially given the number of Tufted Ducks and Pochard we get over the autumn and winter. So, with duck numbers down I was delighted when the first bird I got on, in a small group of Tufted Ducks, on Sunday May 3rd was a dapper drake Ring-necked Duck. 

As always, it is worth checking all salient features to remove any doubt of a hybrid. Having rattled off a few record shots, I went about confirming the key features:

• Typical high, egg-shaped head
• Bill grey with white line at the base, broad pale subterminal band and black tip
• Greyish wash to the flanks moving to white at the front

  Same duck, different orientation

I checked the Stanford records and this appeared to be the second for the site, the first being back
in 1978. The late John Cranfield in his “Species Status Comments” in the 'Flora and Fauna' tab on the SRG website references a bird in January / February of 1978 (unsexed) and there is a question mark against it in the species list.
Back in 1978 Ring-necked Duck was a national rarity and required submission to the British Birds Rarities Committee (BBRC). Having reviewed the 1978 and 1979 issues of British Birds there is no mention of a record at Stanford Reservoir in the accepted or rejected section. I have also reviewed the Birds of Leicestershire and Rutland, the LROS county report and records archive for that year and asked Bob Bullock to check the Northants reports – again nothing listed for this record from any local sources.
So all in all it’s a bit of a mystery. Perhaps an oversight by the observer not to submit the
record (a lesson for us all). The only thing in its favour is that there was an influx of at least
22 birds into the UK between November 1977 and March 1978. However, if I take a purist
approach, BBRC did not receive a description and therefore the 1978 record should be
removed, promoting the May 2026 bird to the first record of Ring-necked Duck for the site.
Chris Hubbard

Return to Ringing in 2026!

 

Jo and Heather taking part in a bit of scrub bashing

After Scrub bashing for the last four months it was great to get back to ringing on the 4th of April. Dawn had already done a session on the Leicester side in late March, catching 10 new birds and 8 retraps just to ease herself back into the swing of things and dust the ringing kit off.

The weather during April has been pretty good and this has been reflected in our best ever total of 272 new birds ringed (our previous best being 213 last year). During this time we also caught 246 birds that we had previously ringed. Of these we had 147 individuals, the best being a nine year old Blackbird, a seven year old Garden Warbler and a six year old Sedge Warbler and similar Whitethroat.

All the way from San Sebastian in northern Spain; a lovely Sedge Warbler

During April we had the first passerine controls of the year, all Sedge Warbler, and all ringed overseas; one from France, one from Jersey and another on the 5th of May from Spain, truly remarkable! Of the 272 birds ringed in April we managed 24 species and of this total only 68 were resident birds that over wintered at Stanford. What's happening to our residents every year? We seem to catch fewer, even with the habitat getting better!

Dave and Mark (from Severn Trent) towing a Tern raft into Blowers Bay

On a brighter note the tern rafts have been refurbished and refloated this last week, so with plenty of Common Terns about we are hopeful of a good breeding season; it would also appear that a pair of Black Headed Gulls have already taken up residence as well, if so this will be a first breeding attempt for Stanford.

MJT 

2025 Annual Report Out Now

 'I used to be a Goldcrest, until I read the SRG 2025 Annual Report', available from: 2025 Report

 

Look what happened to me!