Blakeney Point - 5th July 2025

 It was a clear, bright and very windy day as we trundled along the beach on our way to meet EMS and the team of wardens to find and mark Little Tern chicks. Two years ago there had been more than 50 of a suitable size to be ringed with darvics, although last year had been a disaster with an eventual mass desertion and there had been no attempt to ring any of the birds.

As we slowly walked the beach it became increasingly clear that this appeared to be another poor year. Apart from a handful of juveniles that had already fledged there were just a few very small chicks, too small to take  a ring, with 4 that could be marked and some nests still with eggs. The Black-headed gull numbers looked to be on the increase and their colony was rather too close to where the terns were nesting.

We were seeing adults bringing food in, and I hope that perhaps there are more nests and young in an area away from where we checked, although that doesn't seem very likely. There is a second colony that wasn't looked at and we hope that there will be more youngsters not far from fledging there.

Our time was limited and we ended having marked just 4 birds. An Oystercatcher chick was a bonus.

Total: 5

Little Tern - 4
Oystercatcher - 1

Swan monitoring in Norfolk - 17th November 2024

 Every year we get a large (for us) team together to monitor Mute Swans. This is part of the continuing project lead by Mike Reed to assess swan movements and longevity. We make capture of birds in their hatch year a priority as they are of a definite known age and they also provide an insight into productivity for that year.

The team for today was MR, CL, DKL, PWL, DMD, CVG, PAM, EPL, CJH and EGB.

Swans were captured by hand, ringed and fitted with individually identifiable darvic leg markers at Whitlingham Country Park, Hoveton bridge, Wroxham Broad and Potter Heigham. The individually coded rings allow further observations without the need to capture the birds. We also recorded a further 20 birds that had been ringed and marked under this project previously.

For many of the team this was a new experience, completely different to mist netting and ringing passerines that makes up so much of the training to ring. Our group did exceptionally well, working together in a real team effort to achieve a good day of monitoring.

Mallard catching proved more difficult than the swans

It was particularly pleasing to capture a small family group at Potter Heigham. This group of cob, pen and a single cygnet were the only swans at this location. The pen was captured first and fishing line with a hook embedded in her foot was successfully removed before she was fitted with a metal ring, darvic coded 4GTW and released.

Looking at the number of cygnets ringed to adult birds, this catch seems to be down compared to our last two winters. In early 2022 we did two days at the same sites and got 23 birds hatched in 2021 and 54 adults. Adult numbers were high due to an absence of monitoring during 2020 and 2021 as a result of the Covid19 pandemic. The catch in 2023 was in early December and at that time of the 32 birds marked it was an even split 16/16. This session, we only got 7 cygnets and 18 adults. Mute Swans are long lived birds and a breeding season may be abandoned by some pairs if conditions are too problematic. It's not straight forward to interpret how this might reflect on this years breeding season as it was very wet at the start of the year and some first attempts may have been unsuccessful.  This is not just a case of possibility of flooding. We know of a case where the nest was built at the edge of the water and by the time the flooding subsided there was too much dry ground between the nest and the water. This attempt failed and the birds did not try again at that site.

This autumn has been unseasonably warm. We only saw one obvious family party and they were not with other swans. There may still be family parties where the young remain with the parents out on the broads and in general, there may still be birds that have not yet needed to move to areas such as Hoveton Bridge, where there is a designated feeding platform and the public regularly feed birds. In the winter this tends to inflate the numbers of swans present at this site. It was noted that some cygnets, either independent of parents or where parents are 'encouraging' them to leave were kept away from food or did not join the feeding flock, remaining distant from a few, more mature, aggressive individual birds. These factors play into the numbers present and captured in addition to other possible factors such as the potential effect of weather conditions and Avian Influenza over the past few years.

Many thanks to the Broads authority and trustees of Whitlingham Country Park for permission to monitor at these sites. All ringing activities undertaken under the appropriate British Trust for Ornithology licence and relevant endorsements.

Please report any sightings to Mike Reed - mike.reed2017@outlook.com

Totals: 27 new, 1 recapture, 20 re-sighted

Mute Swan - 25 (1) [20]
Mallard - 2

6M Mute Swan

A farm in North-west Norfolk - 22nd June 2024

 A varied visit to the farm for Barn Owl and wader chicks with DKH.

4 well grown Oystercatchers marked with darvic codes

A single Lapwing that was caught in the vehicle track

Three Barn Owls ringed

Totals:

Barn Owl - 2
Lapwing - 1
Oystercatcher - 4

Tree Sparrows - 21st July 2023

After failing to capture any Tree Sparrows during the winter CES and having no birds take up the new boxes provided at the hay barn, we finally connected with some and marked three birds for the project.

It would be nice to average more than one Tree Sparrow per 13 or 14 birds (mainly tits) so we continue to refine our catching attempts. 

Hopefully, over the winter a number of new boxes will be put up at a second site to encourage nesting where monitoring is possible. 

Adult female Tree Sparrow

Adult male Tree Sparrow

Juvenile Tree Sparrow

Unexpected bonus of the day  was a captured flat fly from one of the Tree Sparrows, collected as part of an ongoing investigation into occurrence of flat fly species and birds that are their hosts.  

Capture and ringing undertaken with appropriate licences.

Total:43

Woodpigeon - 2
Dunnock - 1
Blackbird - 1
Reed Warbler - 1
Chiffchaff - 1
Blue Tit - 24
Great Tit - 4
Tree Sparrow - 3
House Sparrow - 4
Chaffinch - 1

 

Little Terns, Blakeney Point, Norfolk - 1st July 2023

 The permissions and authorisation under schedule one licence were in place since last year, but due to the situation with Avian Influenza within other nearby colonies we postponed our first year marking the Little Tern chicks. The weather has a habit of being changeable so that also had us on tenterhooks as the day approached. We were hoping for a dry, cloudy day and that is what materialised, although extremely windy.

We assembled a 6 person team, organisers CL and DKL, DKH who is the warden at the point, ERB,  PH and BD of the West Midlands Ringing Group who brought their thermal-imaging equipment. 

DKH reported two days beforehand that 27 chicks had been counted when last surveyed, down from 43 a few days before and we feared that predation had been a problem. Having now ringed the young, and seen the range of ages present, some may have actually flown off prior to our ringing effort.

Three teams of two, each with their own rings and recording packs, started from the far end of the colony to avoid moving the young towards the area where Black-headed Gulls had been, although now most were gone. The thermal cameras worked well during the first sweep, with young marked and returned to where they were picked up as teams working in twos progressed steadily through the colony. A time limit had been set for each sweep to minimise disturbance and great care was taken as there were still nests with eggs and very small chicks. 

We were very fortunate as there were no gulls, that may have tried to take chicks, present and we were able to complete both separate ringing sweeps without interruption. The shingle had warmed after the time out to allow normal tern activity to resume, and imagers were less helpful second time through the area. Some young were capable of weak flight, and there is every chance that a good percentage of marked young will fledge successfully very soon.

Three character alpha codes on yellow darvic rings were fitted in addition to metal rings.

Six chicks could only take a metal ring. We were all very pleased to fit darvics to 51 young Little Terns. These will be studied at the breeding site, via remote camera should they return as well as via the usual observation reporting opportunities for any bird carrying a darvic.

Many thanks to the National Trust for authorising the project, PD & BD for joining us from the Midlands and providing high tech kit, DKH for arranging access to the point and colony (saving us all a very long walk) and ERB for joining us. Photos by ERB, PH, BD & DKL.

Ringed under schedule 1 licence with all relevant bio-hazard precautions taken.

BCN with both rings in place and ready for release.

Totals:

Little Tern pulli - 57 (51 with darvic, 6 metal only)