Celebrating 50 years of bird ringing at Stanford Reservoir!

 
On 10th May, we gathered to celebrate 50 years of ringing at Stanford Reservoir and the subsequent formation of the  Stanford Ringing Group. 
The Chequers hosted and put on a marvellous spread alongside some well-earned liquid refreshment for the group, its supporters and friends from over the years. Mick provided a potted history of the group and its formation along with some interesting facts and trends relating to the birds ringed by the group.  

Mick holding forth to a captive audience

Over the years, the ringing locations, ringers and species of bird have changed. We have lost several species from our main ringing site at Stanford Reservoir. However, we have also gained a few along the way too. Who knows what species we might be ringing in 50 years’ time! 

Various miscreants from the SRG, partners and friends

A big thank you to all whom came along to join in the celebration and make it so special. A special thank you to the Chequers for their hospitality and to Gina Jones for the fantastic cake, which not only looked amazing but tasted great too!

Lastly, our thanks to Mick for all of his efforts and hard works over the years. Without his dedication and commitment, the group would not be what it is today!
Here’s to the next 50 years.

Written by JLU 

Warblers in April

The group is out and ringing on a regular basis now that spring is here. It is even quite warm at times! The SRG really specialises in warblers, therefore April is an exciting time, as our warblers have been arriving from foreign climes. Here is Josh ringing at the point on a very cool day, hence the many layers:

Using the BTO's Demography Online standard report Initial Ringing Year function, it is easy to identify our own birds ringed in previous years, which have returned to us.

So at the end of April we had 3 Blackcaps returned and 45 new birds ringed, Chiffchaff  22 returned 33  new, Garden Warbler 13 returned 4 new, Lesser Whitethroat 2 returned 3 new, Reed Warbler 13 returned 10 new, Sedge Warbler 11 returned 33 new, Whitethroat 11 returned 17 new and lastly Willow Warbler 11 returned and 7 new. These will form the basis of our breeding population, but of course more birds will arrive through spring.

 

Very site loyal a recently returned Reed Warbler

 

Ready to breed, note the bright eye of a mature Whitethroat

The oldest birds were ringed in 2020, and comprise 3 Sedge Warblers and a single Garden Warbler, so they clearly have a lot of miles on the clock, and this suggests that our Sedges are quite robust! 

PMN

All Quiet on the Western Front

 

At first glance, Stanford Reservoir in early March at the Point, is quiet and tranquil, an ideal spot for a bit  of bird watching.

However, turn the corner on a Saturday morning and you will find a very different story, a veritable hive of activity:

 Kate working, Adam watching

 Stuart Keeping the fire going 

Mick and Dawn and a load of mud.

Yes, this is the mighty SRG enjoying a spot of scrub bashing, the maintenance work we carry out to maintain a good breeding environment for our warblers. This year, we have worked from the Railtrack out to the Point. 

We recently had a Blackcap BCD3425 ringed at Stanford in September 2024 which was retrapped on 10 February 2025 at the southern tip of Gibraltar, thanks to Mark Cutts and the team at Gibraltar Bird Observatory! So we know the warblers are coming, making their way north, but as yet not much evidence of their arrival; we are just waiting for the returning Chiffchaffs to start calling to know that we are in business. Watch this space for more ringing shenanigans!

PMN 

Rejoice!

 

Be Glad, for the 2024 Annual Report is now available at no extra cost from: http://www.stanfordrg.org.uk/srgstats/2024-annrep.pdf  

Peter

 

End of Year Round Up

The end of the ringing year is in sight as the nights get longer and the guys lie frozen on the ground. The annual report will be out in the new year, so this is a brief update about recent activities to keep our loyal readers informed (and indeed enthralled!).

So, the warblers all left us by the end of October, with only an occasional misdirected, or possibly overwintering, Chiffchaff turning up in the nets. Our first Redwing were ringed on 12 October, and so far we have ringed 366; a reasonable total but possibly largely due to the number of sessions rather than a large numbers of birds. Certainly for the last couple of weeks we have had nets up in the dark, resulting in a couple of rounds of Redwing followed by not too much. Fieldfare numbers have been just about adequate (11):

Down from Scandinavia- Fieldfare, such beautiful birds

One of our classic winter finches, Lesser Redpoll (or possibly, just plain Redpoll according to the latest classification) have been disappointing  at only 32. However, there have been a few interesting records. Firstly, on two separate occasions single Siskins were ringed, a species we do not get every year. These were the first since 2020:

Male Siskin... what a stonker!

Next, our Secretary Adam, who for many years has denied even the existence of Firecrest as a species, was finally rewarded with extracting and ringing one on 24 October, much to the relief of the whole group:

Hooray! A Firecrest for AGH

This was the first since 2020. Even more unusual, a single House Sparrow was ringed, the first since 2017; not quite as exciting perhaps, but a real rarity for us:

Wow! Very welcome at the Reservoir. An actual House Sparrow

Finally top of the rarity charts were three Yellow-browed Warblers ringed in September and October, a site record:

Yellow Browed Warbler... one of three!

The annual report will give full details of our ongoing shenanigans, so keep an eye out for the full story of the ringing year... it's been a funny old year with very changeable weather, but the group has pulled together and worked hard. Next up is scrub bashing. As always if you have some time to spare and would like to take part, contact details are on the website, where you also will find previous reports.

PMN 

Stanstock V

 

Stanstock V has now been and gone, and we are well on the road to recovery, both physically and mentally. Instead of the traditional week of non stop ringing action, we decided to extend it to two weeks because... well, why not?

Anyway, the first week was rather windswept and rainy, but we did manage some ringing on each day, based primarily on the Railtrack, plus an occasional ringing station at the Bench and trips to the Northants reedbed.

 

From left to right on the Railtrack: Peter B, Josh, Jo, Emily, Heather, Chris H (scribing). Mick lurking in the background. 

During the two weeks we ringed 3,521 new birds, and retrapped 39, including 8 British controls plus one colour ringed Black-headed Gull spotted by Chris H. The species breakdown for new birds was as follows: Blackcap 1,811, Whitethroat 482, Reed Warbler 276, Sedge Warbler 187, Willow Warbler 166, Chiffchaff 158, Garden Warbler 101, Robin 90, Lesser Whitethroat 66, Swallow 24, Starling 24, Wren 20, Reed Bunting 17, Blue Tit 17, Stock Dove 15, Grasshopper Warbler 13, Long Tailed Tit 10, Goldcrest 10, Redstart 5, Great Tit 4, Kingfisher 3, Dunnock 3, Acredula type subspecies of Willow Warbler 2, Tree Pipit 2, Spotted Flycatcher 2, Song Thrush 2, Greenfinch 2, and single Whinchat, Water Rail, Treecreeper, Linnet, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Goldfinch, Cetti's Warbler, Bullfinch, and Blackbird.

The general consensus was that, despite the weather, it was a strong two weeks without quite matching the highs of the previous years. However, perhaps the standout bird was a juvenile Water Rail, which apparently wandered into the net at Box 8:

 

Only the second ever ringed at Stanford!

Here are some other unusual birds, which we hope the casual reader might enjoy... we certainly did!

 

Juvenile Whinchat

 

Love a Tree Pipit!

 

 

Blimey! C'est un stonker, non? Full male Redstart. 

We just about staggered on for the full two weeks, although at times this did involve a bit of huddling under Adam's gazebo, but we are all friends and as this picture shows, we were hardly likely to starve, or indeed dry out. Roll on the rest of migration!

Barbeque night at Stanstock in August 2024. Cheese and biscuits courtesy of Chris H, port courtesy of Jade.

PMN

Mid Year Round-up '24

This year has been, well let's say challenging, in terms of weather. It's been various combinations of wet, cool and windy for most of the spring and into summer. This has limited opportunities and access, but now- in mid July- it has, to some extent settled down. Over the last 10 days, we have pretty much covered the main ringing areas, from Blower's Bay, to the Railtrack, out to Point, and into the Leicestershire Reed-bed. Here are some pictures from over the last week, to give an idea of the sites and range of activities:

 

Mick, Pete B and our new trainee Josh in action in the Bay

 

Line of four nets at Point... birds waiting to be extracted and ringed.

 

 

Mick checking the credentials on a French Reed Warbler, breeding here in the Northants reed-bed.

 

Meanwhile over in the Leics reed-bed, the team of Adam, Dave, Stuart and Josh were busy putting up nets and getting some nice birds too (see above, I didn't think this one needed a caption). And in the same day as the French Reed Warbler, they controlled a Belgian one. Zut alors!

 

 

With love, all the way from Belgium

Adam and the nest box team have also been busy, ringing lots of Blue and Great Tits, but some rather more glamorous species too:

 

Destined for beauty, but possibly not quite there  yet; three Barn Owl chicks.

Finally, here is a summary of the birds ringed thus far. The first number is for birds ringed, the second in brackets for retraps: Barn Owl 7, Blackbird 15 (33), Blackcap 212 (72), Blue Tit 365 (95) Bullfinch 5 (4), Carrion Crow 1, Cetti's Warbler 2 (19), Chaffinch 21 (3), Chiff 150 (98), Common Tern 11, Dunnock 62 (93), Garden Warbler 45 (67), Goldcrest 8 (1), Great Spotted Woodpecker 3 (3), Great Tit 198 (65), Goldfinch 29 (3), Greenfinch (1), Jackdaw 19, Jay 1, Kingfisher 1, Lapwing 4, Lesser Whitethroat 54 (11), Linnet 29 (11), Long Tailed Tit 14 (23), Mute Swan 1, Pied Wagtail 4, Redwing 1, Reed Bunting 60 (66), Reed Warbler 142 (95), Robin 59 (34), Sedge Warbler 47 (64), Song Thrush 7 (27), Spotted Flycatcher 1, Stock Dove 3, Swallow 22, Treecreeper 20 (2), Whitethroat 70 (61), Willow Warbler 40 (58), Wren 56 (35).

So that is 39 species so far. The record for the site is 69 so there is some way to go as yet... watch this space.  

PMN