CAN I HAVE A REST NOW----- September review

Well what a staggeringly fantastic month it's been for sheer numbers of birds pouring through Stanford Res. We have been out ringing on site 18 times this month and caught and processed some 2793 birds of 36 species, ringing 2488 of them !!!! To put this in perspective we have only had 7 better ANNUAL totals than this month in 39 years of ringing on site. Little did we know how the month was going to pan out, when on the 1st I went out and only ringed 30 birds (lowest catch). The following day we were back out with a visiting ringer for company, hoping for a better day. Well it went well beyond our wildest dreams with 298 birds ringed mostly Blackcap (highest catch) and that is by and large how its continued all month. Blackcaps have been beyond belief, we have caught a staggering 1291 birds this month bringing the annual total to 1627, more than doubling our previous best of 710 in 2011. Another real success story has been Chiffchaff with sheer numbers just going through the roof. We have ringed 507 this month which has outstripped our previous best annual total of 388 by miles we are currently on 663 for the year. Apart from the high numbers we have had a little bit of quality as well in the form of 2 Redstart, a Spotted Flycatcher and finally, 2 Northern Willow Warblers (there have only been 4 records for the county and all at Stanford). We have also had a record month for controls with 5 Blackcap, 2 Chiffchaff and a Willow Warbler. So we will sit back and wait to see where they have come from and give us an insight into the origins of this fantastic movement. To see a comprehensive list of this months totals and everything about Stanford then go to our Web Site. Just type in Stanford Ringing Group and browse ---- Mick