First Whitethroat of the Year

Just four group members turned up at 0600 hrs for the first Saturday morning session (9th April) of the new season at Stanford. A total of 15 nets were erected on this sunny, cloudless day with no wind until later in the morning. With lots of birds about it was good to see plenty of Linnets.  In the last two or three years Linnets have increased considerably at the Reservoir and their numbers are approaching those of the 1980's.
Chiffchaff and Willow Warblers were also in evidence and Reed Buntings seemed to be singing from every available perch.

We ringed 22 new birds and processed 23 (retraps) as follows:
 
Wren (1) - Dunnock 4 - Blackbird 1 (1) - Song Thrush (1) - Sedge Warbler (1) - Whitethroat (1)
Blackcap 2 - Chiffchaff 1 - Willow Warbler 4 (4) - Long-tailed Tit 1 - Blue Tit 1 (1) - Great Tit 1 (1)
Tree Sparrow 2 (1) - Chaffinch 2 (5) - Linnet 2 - Reed Bunting 1 (6)


The retrap data proved to be interesting as the male Whitethroat (ringed 3J in 2009) is the earliest ever recorded at Stanford. The Song Thrush and one of the Willow Warblers were originally ringed by us in 2007 and two of the retrap Chaffinches had not been retrapped since their original ringing in 2006 and 2008 respectively.

Sight records of interest included singles of Curlew and 'Commic' Tern, a number of Swallows and Sand Martins, four Yellow Wagtails and at least seven singing Sedge Warblers (up from the first single bird heard last Saturday 2nd April).

MJT/JGC
                                               

          

     

Whose Tree Sparrow Is This?

Mick and I decided to have a quiet morning's ringing for four hours at Stanford to have a break from the ride clearing and scrub bashing of recent weeks.  We set up the three nets at the Feeder Station and were rewarded with 24 new birds, 28 retraps and a control Tree Sparrow.
The tally was:
Great Spotted Woodpecker 1
Dunnock (2)
Coal Tit 1
Blue Tit 9 (13)
Great Tit 8 (8)
Tree Sparrow 2 (3 + 1 control)
Chaffinch 2 (1)
Reed Bunting 1 (1)
The retrap Reed Bunting was one of 5 pullus ringed in June 2006

Control Tree Sparrow TL22946

We were also rewarded with a reasonable view of a Muntjac

While the Cats are Away

 
With Masai Mick enjoying a three week sojurn in Costa Rica, one trainee doing the same in Sri Lanka, yet another trainee carrying out extensive building repairs and yours truly recovering from a fall on the ice which put my recovery from a knee replacement operation back several weeks, the number of troops available for the annual ride clearance and scrub bash at Stanford has been severely depleted in recent weeks - or so you would have thought but our ever-resourceful Head Chef press-ganged her neighbours into turning out in the cold and rain to assist.  So many thanks to Sue and Malc for all their efforts.

WOW a Wall Of Warblers. A review of 2010.

Mick Townsend reflects on the best year ever for the Stanford Ringing Group ~

Stanford Reservoir - Report For 2010

A Little Something for Xmas

People would be wrong to think we only catch thrushes at Stanford in December. Admittedly, 48 of the 50 new birds ringed today were thrushes... but amongst the other (two) birds was the 51st species to be ringed at the Reservoir this year, a Little Owl...

Snow ringing today!

As the snow is now falling it is time to update the blog with the results from the last couple of ringing sessions.

Mick visited the res on Monday and managed a very credible 33 Redwing, 19 Fieldfare, 2 Blackbird, 1 Song Thrush and 1 Reed Bunting.

A crisp and frosty Tuesday morning accompanied by a beautiful lunar eclipse saw Mick and Adam push the Redwing total over the 600 milestone with a further 58 ringed. A dozen more Fieldfare, 3 Blackbird and 2 Reed Bunting completed the days ringing.

With October Redwing weights being mid 50's to low 60's, it was encouraging to see that they were predominately mid 60's to mid 70's with only the odd one in the high 50's to low 60's range.

Ding Dong! - Redwings Merrily On High!

 Friday 17th December

After Masai Mick's midweek effort in raising the Group's annual total of Redwing above the 400 mark, the question we were all asking was "Can we take the total to 500 before the New Year?"

The question was rapidly confined to the waste bin after Friday's session:

AGH, having worked extensive shifts all week and being completely oblivious to his family's needs of assistance with the festive preparations, decided to team up with MJT for another early morning sortie to Stanford in the search for even more thrushes.  Three hours later, having duly ringed one Song Thrush, four Blackbirds, thirteen Fieldfare and one hundred (yes - 100 !!) Redwing it was apparent that the Redwing target had been set too low.

With the Group's ring stocks now dwindling faster than the Council's grit supplies an urgent call to BTO sales was clearly needed in order to remedy the situation and I was promised that the BTO Elves would package and post my order without delay.

 Saturday 18th December

With not a trainee in sight, the three of us met at the usual hour of 0600hrs and those of a superstitious mind will realise what was to come - a poor catch of a couple of Fieldfare, 3 Blackbirds and 15 Redwing quickly brought us back down to earth.  However, as it was pointed out, not so very long ago we would have been pleased with 15 Redwing as an annual total. Cue to retire to The White Hart for refreshments in front of the log fire!