Salthouse garden - 1st September 2026

A little breezier than we would have liked, but with the recent fall of migrants on the North Norfolk coast  how could a ringer not give it a go. Today we exceeded our total from two days ago finishing on 80 birds captured. That included a retrapped and new Pied Flycatcher and a Garden Warbler. Our sites rarely give us the opportunity to catch Garden Warbler so we are in the curious and rather unexpected position of having more Pied flycatchers in the records for 2026 than Garden Warblers. 

As is often the case at this site, there were rather too many Blue Tits, but the price we have to pay for the chance of migrants navigating the coast on their way south.

Juvenile Garden Warbler

Juvenile Pied Flycatcher

3M Blackcap

Age 3 Robin showing two rather nice OGCs

Total: 74 (6)

Blackcap - 13
Blue Tit - 33 (4)
Chiffchaff - 9
Coal Tit - 1
Dunnock - 2
Garden Warbler - 1
Great Tit - 7 (1)
Pied Flycatcher - 1 (1)
Robin - 5
Whitethroat - 2

Salthouse garden - 30th August 2026

 A second try near the coast after autumn migrants had been seen, went rather better than the previous day and much better than we expected. We managed 56 birds, and rather too many were Blue Tits, but we were very pleased to capture 3 Pied Flycatchers. They each appeared in different nets and at least two of the three were certainly heading East. We saw a fourth un-ringed PIEFL as we packed up so it seemed that the birds seen further West over the past few days are steadily making their way along the coast, slightly inland.

The first Pied Flycatcher that's been caught at an Iceni BMG site.

We've not caught a Piedfly since we last ringed in Cyprus a few years ago, 

so the reference books were useful.

4M Pied Flycatcher

3F Pied Flycatcher

Juvenile Lesser Whitethroat

Total: 54 (2)

Blackcap - 10
Blue Tit - 27 (1)
Chiffchaff - 7
Great Tit - 2
Lesser Whitethroat - 1
Long-tailed Tit - 1
Pied Flycatcher - 3
Robin - 1 (1)
Wren - 2

Burnham Deepdale - 29th August 2026

 On a day when the window of opportunity before the rain was windier than forecast, the birds were somewhere else and we only reached 19 on the record sheet. 

For a while it looked as though captures were either Chiffchaffs or Blackcaps, but a few lat captures brought the species tally up to five.

Total: 18 (1)

Blackcap - 6
Chiffchaff - 7
Great Tit - 1
Robin - 1 (1)
Whitethroat - 3

Sedge Warbler foreign captures from 16th May 2026.

 On the 16th of May this year we were ringing at Sculthorpe Moor with OHK and were rather surprised to extract two foreign Sedge Warblers from the same net. One had a ring with the Barcelona scheme address and the other was Moroccan.

We were particularly excited about the Moroccan ring as only 9 Sedge Warblers have been recorded with rings from Morocco up to the 2024 ringing report. The recoveries took a while to come through but we now know that both birds were actually ringed in Morocco, only a day apart but from the west and east of the country.

The Spanish ring, B131139, was used March 24th this year at the Yasmina Hotel, Merzouga, where Spanish ringers monitor birds during the  spring migration. The following day, BB02033 was used by Moroccan ringers at Oulad, Ghanem near the west coast. 

Sculthorpe Moor - 23rd August 2026

 Fifty one birds on the record sheet today, and the first session in the right kind of habitat when we didn't get any Sedge Warblers at all. Captures were mostly young birds, although 3 adult Chiffchaffs bucked that trend and there was also an adult Blackcap and Great Tit.

We connected with a tit flock in the middle of the morning, hence the figures showing rather too many tits for our liking, although that did draw along the two Nuthatches. We do try to focus on summer migrants while we have the chance.

Male Blackcap

Juvenile Whitethroat

3M Nuthatch

Total: 46 (5)

Blackcap - 6
Blue Tit - 13 (1)
Chiffchaff - 11 (2)
Great Tit - 4
Long-tailed Tit - 1
Reed Warbler - 4 (1)
Robin - 2
Nuthatch - 2
Whitethroat - 3
Wren - 0 (1)

Barn Owl ringing - 19th August 2026

 Today we ringed the last of our Barn Owls for the year. The three were a late brood in one of the barns on the Sandringham estate, bringing the total of Sandringham young ringed this year to 47. 

Including the other sites brings the pulli Barn Owl ringed figure up to 99. A very good year, although unlike most sites last year, Sandringham birds did quite well in 2025, bucking the national trend.

Sadly one of this year's cohort has already been reported as a road casualty just 17 days after ringing.

Oldest, P4 =56.6

Middle chick, P4 = 37.2

Youngest chick, P4= 25.2

And that's the last one safely back in the box.

Norfolk Rivers Trust, Ingoldisthorpe - 16th August 2026

 A first morning session at this site for the autumn and it seems that it's possible to get almost the same in terms of quantity, whether you do 6 hours in the morning or 3 hours in the evening with half the number of nets!

The morning had a rather quiet feel to it and we finished on 41 birds.

Juvenile Cetti's Warbler

Juvenile Song Thrush

Total: 37 (4)

Blackcap - 2
Cetti's Warbler - 1 (1)
Chiffchaff - 2
Dunnock - 2
Reed Warbler - 11
Robin - 1
Sedge Warbler - 1 (2)
Song Thrush - 1
Whitethroat - 10
Wren - 6 (1)