Morston - 22nd September 2026

 A morning at Morston with PWL confirmed that we have said goodbye to the vast majority of our summer migrants. Despite playing for Whitethroat and Chiffchaff, not a single one was captured, and just three Blackcaps were the only summer migrants. 

Unusually, Robins outnumbered Wrens and Reed Buntings, while there were singles of new Stonechat, Meadow Pipit and Sparrowhawk. The resident Kestrel was found sitting on the net pole a couple of times and probably helped to keep the number of captures down, but not until after we had caught a lot of Blue Tits, mostly what we describe as non regular feeder visitors, with weights between 9.1g and 9.8g.

3M Sparrowhawk

Total: 46 (2)

Blackcap - 3
Blue Tit - 20
Dunnock - 5
Linnet - 2
Reed Bunting - 4
Robin - 5 (1)
Sparrowhawk - 1
Stonechat - 1 (1)
Wren - 4

Dersingham Bog - 21st September 2026

 A session intended to catch Stonechats, but that just wasn't happening. Over seven hours out in the field and none of the target species on the record sheet.

Meadow Pipit

We ended up with Meadow Pipit being the leading species.

Total: 15

Blackcap - 1
Goldfinch - 2
Greenfinch - 1
Meadow Pipit - 9
Reed Bunting - 1

Mute Swan ringing - 19th September 2026

This morning we visited the swan family at Baconsthorpe Castle to catch up and darvic mark as many as possible. The brood of 5 has reduced to 4 since we were last there in May while searching for dragonflies.

Two youngsters were captured and the remainder of the family will have to wait for another attempt.

Total: Mute Swan - 2

Sculthorpe Moor - 14th September 2026

 A session with a real flavour of early autumn. Playing for departing summer migrants resulted in just singles of Reed Warbler and Blackcap. There were 10 Chiffchaffs and strangely 4 of these were adult birds, whereas other species captured tended to be weighted heavily towards many more young than adults.

Our nets connected with three roving feeding flocks, resulting in an awful lot of Blue Tits on the record sheet, the last flock being the largest with more than 40 birds! 

We were fortunate to have DW with us. Having achieved his C for Barn Owls at the start of the year, and helped with one of our seabird days in the summer, he now hopes to diversify and train to do passerines with us.

Cetti's Warbler

Treecreeper juvenile

Total: 66 (7)

Blackcap - 1
Blue Tit - 41 (4)
Cetti's Warbler - 1
Chiffchaff - 9 (1) 
Dunnock - 1
Great Tit - 7 (1)
Marsh Tit - 0 (1)
Reed Bunting - 1
Reed Warbler - 1
Robin - 2
Treecreeper - 1
Wren - 1

Dersingham Bog - 12th September 2026

 We wanted an early start as the wind was due to get up by 11am, and despite struggles with a 3 panel net ( not one of our Merlin nets) bought about 13 years ago and never before used, that had one shelf string about four feet shorter than the others, that actually had two other broken lines already broken as it came fresh out of the bag, we soon got that back in the bag and used another net, then actually did quite well. 

Our main target was Stonechats, that we mark using red darvic rings with white print, and got seven. There were also a number of Linnets and Meadow Pipits.

Male Stonechat

Total: 23

Chiffchaff - 2
Linnet - 5
Meadow Pipit - 8
Robin - 1
Stonechat - 7

Morston - 10th September 2026

 There was very much a feeling that autumn is here as we set up the nets. The wind was low enough for netting, but there was a real chill to it as the wind strengthen towards the later part of the morning and circa 35 Pink-footed Geese heading along the coast confirmed the autumnal feel.

We got two full length doubles up, with an additional 18m and two 12m 2 panels over the stream. It turned into a morning of applying darvic rings with 9 Reed Buntings and 5 Stonechats marked for their respective schemes from the 34 captures.

Male Stonechat

Reed Bunting

Linnet

Willow Warbler

Total: 34

Blackcap - 5
Blue Tit - 5
Chiffchaff - 1
Dunnock - 3
Linnet - 1
Reed Bunting - 9
Robin - 1
Stonechat - 5
Whitethroat - 3
Willow Warbler - 1 

Morston - 7th September 2026

 A breezy morning, but the purpose was mainly to strim around a few rides after the farmer had cut the main areas with his heavy duty equipment. We got two doubles up with a single two panel over the ditch.

We ended on 23 birds of 8 species as we had singles of Reed Warbler, Reed Bunting and Swallow that we hadn't really expected. Leading species was Whitethroat followed by Dunnock.

Adult Whitethroat

Juvenile Swallow

View across to Blakeney Point

Total: 22 (1)

Blackcap - 3
Chiffchaff - 2
Dunnock - 5
Reed Bunting - 1
Reed Warbler - 1
Swallow - 1
Whitethroat - 7 (1)
Wren - 2