Managed to get the July monitoring at the beaver enclosure in, just. There were a couple of very heavy showers towards the end of the session, but we had already brought a couple of nets in by that stage and had cleared through the tit flock that we caught late morning so only had a couple of doubles to take down when the cloudburst happened. CL and DKL did get very wet, but the last two birds had already been extracted before the shower. Warblers seemed pretty thin on the ground although a Reed Warbler that had been ringed by us last August was captured. The bird was singing from the reeds lining a ditch, where we had not heard any song previously this year.
A Grasshopper Warbler was still singing near one of our nets, but managed to evade capture. There was a single Sedge Warbler and only 2 Blackcap and 6 Chiffchaff (one controlled bird had been ringed in March so the location will be interesting) seemed rather poor for this stage of the breeding season.
We did however catch 3 Marsh Tits, a Reed Bunting and a Bullfinch in amongst the parties of tits that are now forming into large, roving feeding flocks.
Other observations included 3 Red Kite, 3 Buzzard, Kingfisher, Stoat and a tiny newt by one of the muddy puddles on the walk out to the nets. Toadlets and froglets are frequently seen but this was a first for us.
Totals: 49 (7)
Blackcap - 1 (1)
Blue Tit - 9 (1)
Bullfinch - 1
Chiffchaff - 5 (1)
Great Tit - 14 (1)
Long-tailed Tit - 9
Marsh Tit - 1 (2)
Reed Bunting - 1
Reed Warbler - 0 (1)
Robin - 2
Sedge Warbler - 1
Wren - 5