Moth Night and Ringing Session

With the government restrictions being lifted 3 of our group (Adam, Kate and Theo) decided to stay overnight at the reserve and carry out this years first Moth night.
Moth nights include erecting mist nets in the evening ready for the next mornings ringing session, before using the moth traps. So this weekend it was decided that the mothing would take place on the Leicestershire side of the reservoir. The nets in the reedbed were erected and the moth traps placed out in the paddock area.
Kate placed 10 small mammal traps out around the campsite. The traps have a nest compartment which contained hay as bedding and food: seeds,mealworms and sultanas.
As darkness arrived the nets were furled until Sunday morning. Time to put their feet up and have a beer or 2 and a bacon roll.
So Sunday morning 4.30 myself, Peter and Mick arrived and erected nets in the paddock area of the Leic bank.
The moth traps were covered for later and the nets in the reed bed opened.
So inbetween carrying out net rounds and processing the birds, Kate, Adam and Theo checked both moth traps and recorded and documented  the moths caught.
Kate checked her mammal traps and had sucessfully caught 2 young bank voles.

Bank Voles

Small Mammal Trap

The moths were processed and the group had had a fantastic night with 177 moths of 56 species, including 3 new species of Macro moths for the reservoir. The Dingy Shears, Round-winged Muslin and small Rivulet.

 Below is a list of moths caught.

Macro Sp: 12/07/2020                                 Micro sp: 12/07/2020

Bright-line                                                                     Acleris forsskaleana 1

Brimstone 2                                                                   Acrobasis advenella 1

Buff-tip 4                                                                       Acrobasis repandanda 1

Buff arches                                                                    Ancylis achatana 1

Burnished brass 3                                                          Carcina quercana 4

Clay 1                                                                            Chrysoteuchia culmella 3

Clouded border 6                                                           Cnephasia agg 3

Common Footman 14                                                    Cochylis hybridella 1

Common Rustic agg 7                                                    Eucosma cana 1

Dark Arches 13                                                               Eudonia mercurella 1

Dingy shears 2                                                                Hedya nubiferana 1

Double Square-spot 2                                                     Patania ruralis 2

Drinker 3                                                                        Rhopobota naevana 1

Dusky Brocade 1                                                            Scoparia ambigualis 2

Flame 1                                                                           Scythropia crataegella 1

Heart + dart 3                                                                                                 
                                                                                              Total 24

Herald 1                                                                                 Species 15

July highflyer 4

Large Yellow Underwing 8

Marbled minor agg 5

Mottled Rustic 2

Plain Golden y 1

Poplar Grey 1

Poplar Hawkmoth 2

Privet Hawkmoth 1

Round-winged muslin 13

Ruby tiger 4

Rustic 2

Scalloped Oak 1

Short-cloaked moth 1

Single dotted wave 3

Small fan foot wave 1

Small Rivulet 1

Smoky Wainscot 12

Snout 1

Spectacle 1

Uncertain 15

Vines Rustic 1

White Satin 1

Yellowshell 1

Yellowtail 3

Total  177

Species 41 

July Highflyer

Dingy Shears

Small Rivulet

Round-Winged Muslin

Privot Hawkmoth

Dusky Brocade

Over the whole weekend we had a very successful ringing session with 158 new birds and 85 retraps including a Portugese control Reed Warbler.

On the evening of the 11-07-20 the group processed 11 species 53 new birds, 29 retraps.
On the 12-07-20 Adams group processed 10 species 54 new birds, 29 retraps.

While my group processed 51 new birds and 24 retraps.

Clearwing Moths

Our group member Simon aka Wild Presentations has succesfully been filming and photographing clearwing moths around the reservoir, using moth pheremone lures.

Lunar Hornet Moth

Red Tipped Clearwing

Red Tipped Clearwing

Lunar Hornet Moth

Well done Team

Back to the New Normal

The BTO recently sent round guidance for ringing, and so we have started again, in a modest fashion, whilst maintaining social distancing. It has been a very strange period, and we are delighted to get back out in the fresh air, and what is now the summer sunshine.
Our birds at the res seem to have managed very well without us, and we are now getting good numbers of juvenile Sylvia and Phylloscopus warblers, as well as the usual resident species.
Dave, Kate, Theo and I were out at the beginning of June, having a pleasant, but possibly unexciting session. We were amazed to find not one but two Swifts in our nets, one at Box 8, one at Safari.

Photos courtesy of Theo.
These are the first Swifts since 2001, and quite possibly the only ones caught in a static mist net at Stanford. Ringing ticks for Peter and Kate. Fantastic birds! 

Ringing is Postponed

Those of you who follow the blog may recall, we scrub bash for the first three months of the year and start ringing in April. However, while the country, and indeed the world, is dealing with the Coronovirus pandemic, we are following government and BTO directives and postponing the start of the ringing season. At the moment we don't know quite when ringing will start this year, but we shall return, and look forward to ringing again in good fellowship. Everyone keep safe.

On a more cheery note, here is a Stonechat ringed near the dam in February 2020- the first exciting bird of 2020 (but not last), and only the second for Stanford!
Peter N

Don't tell them your name Pike.

Two reprobates from the group at the BTO Trainers Conference,  Thetford, February 2020 

End of Year Round Up for 2019

Whilst Britain is lashed by various storms, it is time to write up a brief summary of our totals for the year, courtesy of the group’s secretary Adam, who has sent round totals on a spreadsheet.
Numerically, we have broken our own 40 year record for new birds and hence grand total (8,376 and 10,343 respectively). Controls have been very much in line with previous years (23) and have generally confirmed that our warblers fly down the west coast of France and through the Iberian peninsula en route to West Africa. The balance has been made up with 1944 retraps.
A number of species have done exceptionally well. We have had the best year ever for a number of species, including Blackcaps (2360), Blue tits (636) Sedge warblers (453), Reed warblers (439), Willow warblers (392), Garden warblers (119), Long tailed tits (97) Song thrushes (54) and Redstarts (16). Adam has applied himself diligently to the nest boxes and is largely responsible for recording breaking numbers of Stock doves (62) and Tawny owls (8).
All in all, a difficult year to follow. In summary, we have rung 61 species, the second best ever total, despite no birds of prey, and very strangely no House martins.

At present we are busy scrub bashing, and will be until the end of March, when our migrants start to return. It will be nice if and when the rain stops falling- perhaps by June?
As can be seen, we have a good line in mud, also rain and wind, but despite this we have good fun, all are welcome to join us!
Peter N

Classic Rarity at the Res

Mick, Dave, Stuart and Peter N shimmied out on Saturday 12 October. We met at 0430 and put nets up at Stanford Reservoir from Safari to John's ride, and up the the railtrack. Numbers of birds have settled down now we have weathered the waves of migratory Blackcaps and Chiffchaffs. Instead, we are starting to enjoy our winter finches, so we ringed Goldfinch, Greenfinch and a solitary Lesser redpoll. We also ringed five Blackbirds, which are likely to be migratory. Anyhow, by far the most exciting bird of the day (as predicted by me in my previous log!), was extracted by Dave from the 30' net running along the edge of Oak ride:

This Yellow browed warbler was ringed by Stuart, a new bird for him! This was only the fourth YBW to be ringed at Stanford (readers of the blog may remember we ringed one last year). That was on the 10th October, so there seems to be a tight time frame for their arrival at the res. For non birders, they may not seem too exciting, being quite similar to the more familiar Chiffchaff. The two wingbars identify them as being a different species, but they are still part of the Phylloscopus genus; in this case P. inornatus. Note too the pronounced yellow supercillium which almost met its counterpart at  the back of the head and gives the bird its name.

Totals for the day were a leisurely 77 new and 12 retraps. Anyway, off to the White Hart, where strangely enough it was Stuart's round! Firecrest next...
Peter N

Autumnal Catch Up

Autumn is now upon us, already we have had one morning which required ice to be scraped off windscreens. As usual we have been busy and the weather has been reasonably benign, so no excuse for slacking, or being on holiday. By 19 September we had broken 6000 birds for the year with approximately 4200 warblers, including 2000 Blackcaps. Every weekly group session thus far has produced more than 100 new birds, with some big numbers (185 new on 19 September and 268 on 21 September). However on 14 September, we broke all our records with a total of 613 new, including a staggering 430 Blackcaps, 70 Chiffchaff, 30 Reed warbler, 19 Sedge warbler, one Grasshopper warbler and one Whinchat (only the 3rd at Stanford res). We also had 19 retraps.
The MRG (Midweek Retired Gentlemen's) club (Mick & Peter N) have produced good numbers too, usually around the 100 mark. Thankfully, the supply of Blackcaps seems to be dwindling and we are looking forward to the winter team of Lesser Redpolls and Redwings arriving shortly.
However, it has been a strange year in some respects. Despite a good breeding season in our nest boxes, the Tree Sparrows seem to have forsaken us, and we are lucky to get a single bird on a session now. Similarly our finches have been notable by their absence; we hope that when the supply of wild food in the fields and hedges starts to dry up they will remember our feeders and return for the winter.
On the plus side, we had a Sedge warbler of ours controlled in France, in Frossay on the Loire, having travelled 360 miles in 8 days. Excellent, and unlike most of our retrapped birds, actually heading in the right direction!
Our most recent session on Saturday 05/10/19 produced 141 new plus 18 retraps. The standout bird was undoubtedly produced on the first round, in a V shaped arrangement of two 60' nets in a stubbly field:

 This is only our fifth Skylark at Stanford, and the first since 1980. It was duly ringed by Adam and sent on its way. We are now waiting for our first Yellow browed warbler, it will be here any day now...
Peter N