A Foray into Darkest Leicestershire

 As followers of this blog may know, most of our ringing is based on the rail track access courtesy of Parker Farms, which is in Northants. The border between Northants and Leics actually runs through the reservoir, and so when we went ringing in the Paddock on Saturday 28th May, we crossed into the badlands of Leicestershire. Mick, Dave, Jo and Jade (a potential trainee) put up nets along the Paddock, whilst Adam, Peter and Stuart went into the Reedbed, a few minutes walk further along. 

Results were largely in line with expectations for the time of year; in the Paddock there were 13 new and 18 retraps, in the Reedbed 29 new and 33 retraps. The major surprise of the session was an adult Jackdaw which wandered into one of the nets in the Paddock, no doubt looking for food for a hungry brood. 

Adult Jackdaw

We do get to ring a number of Jackdaw as pulli (nestlings) in boxes, but this has never happened in all the 40 years that Mick has been ringing at Stanford! Whatever next?

Adam and Peter, in the distance, messing around at the end of the dog leg in the Reedbed

Meanwhile, in the Reedbed, it was nice to see a good return of Reed Warblers; we had 26 birds ringed by us in previous years safely arrived back for the breeding season. This makes them our most site faithful species. The oldest was ringed six years and 354 days ago. Given that it is of the order of 3,500 miles from Stanford to their wintering grounds in West Africa, that means it has around 42,000 miles on the clock! Not bad for a little bird which weighs about 12 grams, or 1.5 times the weight of a pound coin. 

Barn Owl chicks

Adam, whose work ethic cannot be faulted, also checked a nest box to find a lovely brood of Barn Owl chicks. These were very recently hatched and too small to be ringed, but we will of course return in a few weeks time to do the decent thing. 

Add into all this a steady trickle of juvenile birds, including Chiffchaff, Robins and Dunnocks, and it is shaping up to be a good season. We are now back into our usual ringing on Saturday mornings; watch this space for further adventures with the mighty SRG!

Peter N