July Second Week - more Deformed Bills

Saturday 9th

With the weather forecast predicting 9 mph winds with 26 mph gusts from 0400 hrs, we thought of cancelling the proposed ringing session but decided to meet at the usual time of 0430 hrs anyway. Just as well we did - with only a slight breeze all morning five of us covered the “reserve” area of Blowers Lodge Bay and had a rewarding morning’s ringing with 79 new and 61 retraps with Whitethroats and Tree Sparrows still much in evidence -  thanks to Dawn,  Adam, Mike H and Ed.                                                                                                               

                                                                      Ringed        Retraps         Total 
          Wren                                                         2                 0                 2 
          Dunnock                                                   1                 0                 1 
          Robin                                                        2                 3                 5 
          Song Thrush                                             2                 0                 2 
          Sedge Warbler                                          3               11               14 
          Reed Warbler                                            0                1                 1 
          Whitethroat                                              17              13               30 
          Garden Warbler                                         4                7               11 
          Blackcap                                                    8                4               12 
          Chiffchaff                                                  10                2               12 
          Willow Warbler                                           3                2                 5 
          Great Tit                                                     1                4                 5 
          Treecreeper                                                1                0                1  
          Tree Sparrow                                            13                6              19 
          Chaffinch                                                    3                 2                5 
          Linnet                                                          6                1                7  
          Bullfinch                                                      0                1                1 
          Reed Bunting                                              3                4                7 

                                                Total:                   79               61             140

 Yet another bird with a deformed bill: –

3J Garden Warbler

There was also time for some other photography:

Common Blue Damselfly

Pellucid Hoverfly

Tuesday 12th

MJT, MDH and I covered the area from the Draw-off Tower to “The Orchard” on what was supposed to be a calm morning with occasional sunshine.  However, the chilly morning got progressively windy and we packed up around 0930 hrs having mist netted 56 new birds and 17 retraps (including the Garden Warbler with the deformed bill from Saturday) and looked to see if it was sheltered enough to ring below the dam – it wasn’t but we were rewarded with the ringing of three 1J Swallows superbly plucked from their perch by Masai Mick.

The totals from the morning were:                                                                    

                                                                      Ringed      Retraps         Total

          Swallow                                                        3                 0                 3 

          Dunnock                                                       2                 0                 2

          Robin                                                            1                 0                 1

          Blackbird                                                      1                 0                  1

          Sedge Warbler                                            23                 6                29

          Reed Warbler                                                5                 2                 7

          Lesser Whitethroat                                        1                 0                 1

          Whitethroat                                                    2                 2                 4

          Garden Warbler                                             0                 2                 2

          Blackcap                                                      10                 2                12

          Chiffchaff                                                        1                 0                 1

          Willow Warbler                                               5                 1                 6

          Linnet                                                             1                 1                 2

          Reed Bunting                                                 4                 1                 5

                                                Total:                      59               17                76

Thursday 14th

A relatively warm morning greeted Masai Mick and me at Stanford today and we actually saw some blue sky for a while – well it is supposed to be summer isn’t it? The morning’s catch tailed off rather quickly but we did manage 87 new birds with 42 retraps.

                                                                             Ringed      Retraps          Total

          Woodpigeon                                                 1                 0                 1

          Wren                                                            1                 1                 2

          Dunnock                                                       2                 2                 4

          Robin                                                           1                 1                  2

          Grasshopper Warbler                                   1                 0                 1

          Sedge Warbler                                            12                 5                17

          Reed Warbler                                                1                 2                 3

          Whitethroat                                                  12                 9                21

          Garden Warbler                                             2                 3                 5

          Blackcap                                                       9                 1                10

          Chiffchaff                                                      7                 1                 8

          Willow Warbler                                              2                 2                 4

          Long-tailed Tit                                               3                 0                 3

          Marsh Tit                                                       1                 0                 1

          Great Tit                                                        2                 1                 3

          Tree Sparrow                                               16               10                26

          Chaffinch                                                       1                 0                 1

          Linnet                                                            4                 0                 4

          Reed Bunting                                                9                 4                13

                                                Total:                      87               42              129

The Marsh Tit is our third one this year and is encouraging as these are the first at Stanford since 2006

The Woodpigeon is a new species for the year’s ringing list and the Grasshopper Warbler is the first juvenile of the year from the two known breeding pairs that we have at the site.

We trapped a 1J Whitethroat with such a deformed bill that it might be more at home in the coniferous forests in Scotland than the scrub of Stanford. I cannot see how this bird can survive more than a day or so now that it has fledged.  In retrospect it might have been kinder to have put it out of its misery?

This is our 6^th bird with a bill deformity this year and as such we have now had more examples of these anomalies than in all the years combined from 1976. It is also the first year that we have found this to occur in warblers with two Sedge, a Garden and now our second Whitethroat being afflicted.

July - First Week

Saturday 2nd        

We thought June at Stanford had been hectic but July got off to a flying start with 143 new birds and 68 retraps. 

As would be expected at this time of year at Stanford, warblers dominated the catch (retraps in brackets):

Sedge Warbler   6 (15)               Reed Warbler     1                     Lesser Whitethroat   4 (1)

Whitethroat       27 (12)              Garden Warbler   5 (5)               Blackcap   18 (3)

Chiffchaff          10                      Willow Warbler    9 (2)

Tree Sparrows continue to appear at the feeding station but 28 new with 10 retraps was a surprising total.

A sprinkling of other species included Coal Tit 1, Willow Tit 1, Linnet 8 (1), Reed Bunting 8 (6) and the first Yellowhammer of the year.

Yellowhammer

Leaving Stanford we were invited to a privately-owned nature reserve where we ringed three Barn Owl chicks to round off the day’s ringing rather nicely – thank you!

The youngest Barn Owl chick

The oldest Barn Owl chick

Monday 4th

Intrepid Adam ventured into the reed bed on the Leicestershire side and managed an impressive 64 new birds with 50 retraps before blearily starting his shift work at 2pm.  As expected Reed Warblers dominated his catch with 30 new birds ringed (of which 12 were pulli) and 40 retraps but his star bird was the second year male Yellow Wagtail that he caught in one of his beloved spring traps – not only another new species for the year but the first Yellow Wagtail to be ringed since 2005.

Yellow Wagtail

Wednesday 6th

With heavy rain and wind forecast for Thursday, Webmaster Mike and I decided that Wednesday, with a forecast of cloud and no wind until 1000 hrs, was going to be a much better bet.  WRONG!  
At 0430 hrs we erected nets around “The Point” area and got off to a very slow start but just a few hours later, after the second heavy shower and with the wind increasing, we took our sorry selves and our wet net bags home.   
We had managed a disappointing 26 new birds (and 32 retraps) which included warbler numbers of:

Sedge Warbler   6 (2)                 Reed Warbler 1 (3)                     Whitethroat       7 (5)

Garden Warbler 1 (2)                  Blackcap        1 (1)                     Willow Warbler 2 (5)

By the end of the week we had ringed 233 new birds with 150 retraps of 26 species

Sedge Warbler Recovery

Thanks to the Scouse Ringer, Peter Fearon, for details of Stanford Sedge Warbler V733483 that he controlled in Portugal last year at his ringing site at Lagoa de Santo Andre, Setubal.  Our recoveries and controls page on the SRG web site has been updated to include this bird click here. Peter caught several UK ringed Sedge Warblers as his Blog shows Peter's Blog

End of June Totals

With just short of 1,500 birds being processed and a total of 846 new birds ringed it has been without doubt our best June ever at our main ringing site.

We believe that the environmental work that we have carried out at Stanford over the last few years has benefited warbler species generally and certainly these do feature prominently in the June totals of new birds ringed:
Sedge Warbler 58, Reed Warbler 123, Whitethroat 126, Garden Warbler 23, Blackcap 86

These and the other totals for June are now available to view on our website page "Ringing Statistics" - click here  monthly stats

Thursday 30th June

0430 hrs at the Reservoir on the last day of June and the water was flat calm with a slight fog hanging over it.

Misty mist net

Masai, Webmaster and I erected single 40 ft nets along the water’s edge in the area from the Draw-off Tower past the first birdwatching hide to “The Orchard” (so called due to the presence of 4 crab apple trees, a greengage and a damson that were planted many years ago in the garden of a small dwelling - now long gone). 

Another ride at the water's edge

Only recently the water’s edge from the Tower to the Hide was lined with a mixture of tall trees, predominately sallows, and was pretty much devoid of birdlife.  Now, following a combined effort by members of the SRG in conjunction with the Northants Wildlife Trust, the area consists of fresh sallow growth and grasses such that insect and bird life has increased enormously – and testament to that was the day’s catch of over 100 birds in the very same area that produced 100+ last week.

Net ride amongst new sallow growth

We ringed 71 new birds and processed 40 retraps – not bad for an area that until the last two years was pretty much ignored!  Once again, Whitethroats were much in evidence with them representing 40% of the total catch.  The first 3J Song Thrush of the year, two more young Treecreepers, our second juvenile Marsh Tit and a sprinkling of warblers made it a worthwhile session to end the month on (retraps in brackets):

Wren 2,   Dunnock 2, Blackbird (2), Song Thrush 1

Sedge Warbler 6 (8), Reed Warbler 2 (1), Lesser Whitethroat 1 (1), Whitethroat 17 (9), Garden Warbler 6 (6),

Blackcap 9 (1), Chiffchaff 5, Willow Warbler 1,

 Long-tailed Tit 1 (3), Marsh Tit 1, Blue Tit 3 (3), Great Tit 1 (3)

Treecreeper 2 (1), Linnet 6, Reed Bunting 5 (2)

The Willow Warbler was of the race acredula – the second ringed by us at the Reservoir - the first was on 23^rd August 2008 and is documented on our web site click here

Northern Willow Warbler - 30th June 2011

Rain stopped play at 1100 hrs