Stanwell Moor - 19 June 2013

After the success with hirundines on the day before we decided to give the reedbed another go, this time accompanied by EP. As we are now nearing the longest day there was plenty of time to get our four nets up in two separate locations from a 7pm start. Even so the traffic on the M25 was still realatively heavy as we negotiated the roundabout just before Stanwell, reminding us that driving conditions can be difficult for ringers joining us to catch at the roost.

The net over the water began to catch almost immediately. Most were youngsters, but among the small number of adults Swallows was 4F L769353, ringed on 01/07/2011 as a 3J by Denise.

 Retrap 4F L769353

 Juvenile Sand Martin

There was also a single Starling and Sand Martin for good measure.

It was a cloudy evening and there was no proper ariel roosting behaviour but that did at least mean that we had good natural light while ringing and were packed up before the light began to fail.

Totals: 22 (2)

Swallow - 19 (1)
Sand Martin - 1
Reed Warbler - 1 (1)
Starling - 1

Stanwell Moor - 18 June 2013

An end of the day session accompanied by JHH to have a go at catching Starlings at the roost. JHH was hopeful that we'd be successful  since she'd never seen them in the hand before.
As it happened we got some birds from the reedbed first and she got an alternative 'new' bird and did her first Kingfisher. Another was caught soon afterwards.

3M Kingfisher

3(F) Kingfisher

The birds kept coming, slowly but surely, then we got the first Swallow of the season followed by the first youngster. 

 

4M Swallow

3J Swallow

After that, we caught 4 young Lottis in a single 60' and also noticed this box of healthy young plants.

 

Most readers of this blog have an interest in birds.......but how is your plant identification skill?

Do you know what they are yet?

The plants were collected by a police officer - leaving Chris dealing with our green problem and Denise and JHH processing some more Swallows and a couple of Sand Martins, both new species for the young trainee. We even had the nets down by the time the Police had been escorted off site. So much excitement but absolutely no Starlings - the main reason for the visit.

Totals: 21 (2)

Kingfisher - 2

Swallow - 8

Sand Martin - 2

Robin - 1

Blackbird - 1 (1)

Reed Warbler - 2 (1)

Blue Tit - 1

Long-Tailed Tit - 4

Wraysbury CES - 18 June 2013

This was a delayed CES from the previous Saturday due to the high winds. There were still plenty of singing males in evidence and a few recently fledged juveniles were in evidence, such as Whitethroates and a couple of juvenile Lesser Whitethroats were caught, but overall numbers were no particularly high, with only 29 new birds and 19 re-traps for the day.

Bullfinch

Totals: 29 (19)

Dunnock - 1 (2)

Robin - 1 (1)

Sedge warbler - 1 (4)

Lesser Whitethorat - 3 (1)
Whitethroat - 12 (8)
Blackcap - 3
Willow Warbler - 0 (1)
Chiff-chaff - 5 (2)
Blue Tit - 1
Long-tailed Tit - 1   
Bullfinch - 1
         

Stanwell Moor - 17 June 2013

The primary reason for the visit was to strim some of the rides and seek out a possible place to target winter finches at a ground feeding station. But we had some nets up too and were pleased to capture some individuals that are becoming quite familiar to us. We caught Y224407, a Reed Warbler, ringed at Bedfont last year and already seen on the 1st and 3rd of June. Next we caught L271161, another Bedfont Reed Warbler, first done there on 25/07/2010 and captured at Stanwell on three dates between 13th May and 8th July in 2012.

Another interesting retrap was that of V792001, a Reed Warbler processed as a 4F on 27th May 2008 and not seen again until today.

Reed Warbler V792001 - at least 6 years old

We were also pleased to locate 3 Bee Orchids, an increase on the single plant that we found last year.

 

Bee Orchid

The main reedbed ride is now clearer and we will be able to use a 30ft net closer to the Starling roost when we're ready to. The bramble lined spit is also clear (for the time being) and we even decided on an area where we will attempt to attract Linnet and Reed Bunting later in the year.

We didn't monitor the flash today but Little Ringed Plover calls were heard as a single bird passed overhead.

Totals :  4 (7)

Dunnock - 1 (1)

Robin - 1

Blackbird - 0 (1)

Reed Warbler - 0 (5) 

Whitethroat - 2

Hilfield Park Reservoir - 16 June 2013

CES time again and we went to help with one of our group sites that has been having a disappointing time lately. Numbers have been down, particularly the Reed Warblers, and the day started in much the same way, although it was nice to get a smattering of youngsters from other species beginning to come through.

While taking down, Chris decided to try flicking for Swifts with one of the CES nets for 10 minutes beofre taking it down, and amazingly actually caught one.

Adult Swift

While walking back, Kenny managed to complete the catch with a couple of Canada goslings.

 Goosy goosy goslings - very cute but also create an awful lot of mess!

Thanks to Mike, Kenny, Irwin and the two Margarets for having us.

Totals: 13 (5)
Canada Goose - 2
Swift - 1
Dunnock - 0 (2)
Robin - 2
Blackbird -3 (2)
Reed Warbler - 1
Whitethroat - 3
Chiff-chaff - 1 (1)

Stanwell Moor - 15 June 2013

Yet another day too windy for mist netting, We decided to put in an hour or so to try for more chicks at the pool. A first scan of the pool appeared to show only one Little Ringed Plover chick and even after giving it quite a long time no more chicks revealled themselves. D homed in on a well grown chick by some short grass at the far end of the pool, only to find that it had already been ringed.

 LRP NS22981 on 10/06 and 15/06

On making my way back towards Chris, I found a well grown Lapwing chick in the grass. It was another chick that already had a ring.

 

Lapwing DE27586 on 8/06 and 15/06.

The LRP parents seemed to have other chicks but we couldn't spot any and were reluctant to walk the area too much. It seems that we tend to find the chicks usually hidden on the pool ( because we prefer to walk on the mud)  and consistently miss those secretted in the surrounding grass that grows longer on each visit and is now folded over onto itself.

Totals - 0 (2)

Little Ringed Plover - 0 (1)
Lapwing - 0 (1)

Stanwell Moor - 10 June 2013

We started the afternoon with a walk up to the flash. We spend a short while looking for chicks and discovered that the two Lapwing chicks ringed on the 8th were still there and growing fast. We found that the Little Ringed Plovers had now moved down to the water and were behaving as though they had chicks somewhere along the grassy margins. It took longer than we would have liked to find just one chick, not the one done on the 1st of June, but consistent in size to having possibly been from the same brood. We were reasonably sure that there was a least one more but didn't want to cause any further disturbance.

 

Little Ringed Plover chick

We went back to the main lake, putting up a run of three nets in the reedbed and two on the adjacent spit. It was a very slow start with a retrap Reed Warbler being the only bird from the nets until almost 90 minutes later when the Starlings began to assemble for the evening roost. We got 9 Starlings in one strike, then found a Jay and a juvenile Robin in he reedbed nets. The roost amounted to 500+ but no other birds found their way into the nets.

 Vociferous Starling youngster

Smart male Starling

Total - 12 (3)

Little Ringed Plover - 1

Lapwing - 0(2)

Robin - 1

Reed Warbler - 0(1)

Jay -1

Starling - 9