Norfolk Rivers Trust - Ingoldisthorpe 30th June 2025

 A restricted session due to the presence of a schedule 1 species, known to be nesting on site. We got just 4 nets up, away from the nest site to avoid creating any disturbance. The ringing of birds at this time of year is unusual here, but was undertaken to support sampling work on a variety of mainly warbler species in the county of Norfolk, looking for evidence of ongoing or past viral infections including Usutu virus, that are now found in some UK bird populations. The sampling process added no more than a few additional minutes before the birds could be released as usual.

Usutu virus is spread by the bite of an infected mosquito and has been found, in very rare cases, to affect humans presumably following a bite from an infected insect.

A total of 22 birds were captured with 13 of these suitable for sampling. We started early and had nets down by 10:30am to avoid the warmer hours of the day.

Age 6 Woodpigeon (sampling of Wood Pigeon 

not within the study remit)

Total: 15 (7)

Blackcap - 5 (1)
Chiffchaff - 4 (1)
Reed Bunting - 0 (1)
Reed Warbler - 1 (1)
Sedge Warbler - 3 (1)
Song Thrush - 0 (1)
Wood Pigeon - 1
Wren - 1 (1)

Blakeney Point - 28th & 29th June 2025

 It continues to be a busy time as young birds edge closer to fledging. 6 young Oystercatchers ringed and marked with darvics on the point, courtesy of EMS & BIB .

Stock image taken on Blakeney Point 2024

Total:6

Oystercatcher - 6

Gull and Tern ringing Scolt Head, Norfolk - 25th June 2025

Fine weather allowed this session to target young Sandwich Tern, Mediterranean Gull and Black-headed Gull at the colony on Scolt Head to go ahead, and be fitted with darvic rings, allowing data to be collected without the need to recapture birds. Information on survival rates, movements and longevity will be collected by observations of interested individuals for years to come.

The planning for this day started months ago with much preparation to ensure a smooth process on the day. The Scolt Head warden selected the date based on chicks being close to fledging to maximise the chances of birds successfully leaving the colony, weather and good tides to bring the equipment and team over to the colony, also assembling a team from Natural England to support the ringers with the capture and marking efforts.

The team consisted of ringers representing Iceni Bird Monitoring Group collaborating with National Trust and Natural England personnel. All necessary permits, endorsements and permissions to carry out this work held.

Over the course of the day 323 birds were marked with darvic rings. This is the first large scale colour ringing effort for gulls and Sandwich Terns in Norfolk for several years.

The birds will be dispersing from the colony soon and sightings of birds in this project can be reported on  https://iceni.shinyapps.io/sightings/ to get an immediate report history of the bird seen.

The Sandwich Terns have green darvics starting K followed by a second letter then a number in white, Mediterranean Gulls have yellow rings starting 2 followed by 3 numbers in black, and Black-headed Gulls have red rings starting 2C or 2H followed by two numbers printed in white. Full details are on the European colour ring birding website. For colour ring projects details see European colour ring birding

Totals: 323

Black-headed Gull - 112
Mediterranean Gull - 83
Sandwich Tern - 128

Resightings of Little Terns YN(BAV) and YN(BCH) at Beacon Ponds, Kilnsea - June 2025

Two of the Little Terns hatched on Blakeney Point in 2023 have been sighted in the colony at Kilnsea, East Yorkshire.

They have now reached an age where they are likely to make a breeding attempt. Last year, BCH was seen at Gronant, Wales in the breeding colony. An unexpected observation as young birds do not usually migrate all the way back to the UK after their first winter.

Many thanks to Tate Lloyd, assistant warden for the observations and images. We hope there may be further records of these terns throughout the breeding season.

Dersingham Bog - 23th June 2025

 We needed to try to retrieve the GPS trackers today, so against our better judgement and despite the strong wind gave it a go.

The first nest went very well, female retrapped and tracker retrieved. Two chicks also ringed.

First tracker retrieval accomplished

The second nest was in a much too windy location, and as she is still on eggs we'll try her tomorrow.

The third nest had a sitting bird that we managed to catch. However, it turned out to be the male rather than female. He was not GPS tagged as the chicks have virtually no down left and are fully feathered. They should fledge soon and tracking him is likely to result in non-retrieval of the GPS device. We'll look again tomorrow to see if she is back.

He was a recapture, ringed on the nest on 24th June 2016.

We also ringed and wing-tagged a nest of three Marsh Harrier. All were males.

Totals: 7 (2)

Marsh Harrier - 3 pulli

Nightjar - 4 pulli (2 adults, 1 had GPS tracker retrieved)

Oystercatchers - 20th June 2025

 A call from Anglian Water staff to notify us that the Oystercatchers at Fakenham Sewage Works have two largish youngsters and within a couple of days we're on site to mark them for the project.

Capture was quite quick and they were soon back, wandering around the filterbeds under the watchful eye of their parents.

Total: 2

Oystercatcher (pulli) - 2

Sculthorpe Moor - 20th June 2025

 Fledging is well underway on the moor. Today along with Blackcap, Sedge Warbler, Wren, Great Tit and Blue Tit young, we caught a second female juvenile Kingfisher that had been bred on the reserve and the first absolute proof that Grasshopper Warbler have managed to get young off.

Juvenile Grasshopper Warbler

3F Kingfisher

It is sad that the Marsh Harriers appear to have failed, neither adult having been seen near the nest site for some days now, however other avian families are doing better.

Total: 19 (5)

Blackcap - 4
Blue Tit - 1
Bullfinch - 1
Chiffchaff - 1 (1)
Grasshopper Warbler - 1
Great Tit - 1
Kingfisher - 1
Marsh Tit - 0 (1)
Sedge Warbler - 6 (3)
Reed Warbler - 1
Wren - 2