Deepdale Farm - 9th July 2026

 This was an early morning visit to trim back the bramble and waist height strands of grass. We had thought that the paths would be kept quite clear by the badgers that move through here, but the rabbits have not been keeping the rides short and some attention was needed especially after the bright sunshine.

CL got to work with the strimmer and I had a single 18m net up. I was fortunate and the net connected with two  mixed flocks of birds moving through, unexpected but one of the benefits of studying a site and knowing how the birds tend to move through. Net opened 8:45am and closed 10:30am.

Juvenile Lesser Whitethroat

Total: 23 (3)

Blackcap - 7 (1)
Blue Tit - 2
Chiffchaff - 3
Goldcrest - 2
Great Tit - 2
Lesser Whitethroat - 1
Whitethroat - 4 (2)
Wren - 2

Norfolk Rivers Trust, Ingoldisthorpe - 8th July 2026

 We arrived at about 5.30pm, ready to get three doubles up in preparation for when the temperature would drop later. The first thing to happen was an observation of one of the juvenile Marsh harriers wing tagged close by. There were other untagged young birds hunting over the fields and a second nest, possibly serviced by the same male, clearly wasn't far away.

The farmer had cut the vegetation around the lagoons and it was easy work getting the nets up. We started catching shortly after 6pm with quite a few Acros including some Reed Warblers from previous years with two from 2023 and three from 2024. We've not worked this site in the evening before and were surprised to see good numbers of Pied Wagtails roosting in the two lagoons either side of one of our nets. Later, Swallow numbers started to build up and they also dropped in to roost in the reeds in good numbers.

Male Pied Wagtail

Cetti's Warbler

Juvenile Swallow

Whitethroat

Total: 47 (6)

Blackbird - 1
Blackcap - 7
Cetti's Warbler - 1
Dunnock - 1
Greenfinch - 2
Pied Wagtail - 2
Reed Warbler - 4 (6)
Sedge Warbler - 4
Sand Martin - 1
Swallow - 22
Whitethroat - 2

Scolt Head - 8th July 2026

 We started the day with a boat trip over to Scolt. There were three Oystercatcher chicks that had reached a decent size and they needed darvic rings. The survival rate of Oystercatchers is causing concern and the colour ringing is a pre-curser to the radio tracking of chicks from hatching due to start next year.

We did better than expected and marked 4 youngsters with a fifth only large enough to take a metal ring. A chick marked on the 25th June was also observed. The hope is that these later broods will have a better chance of survival now that the local harriers and kites are no longer feeding chicks in the nest.

This area on Scolt Head shows the tell tale patches of feathers where 

avian predators pluck prey before returning to the nest.

Colonies of gulls and terns once discovered are regarded as an open buffet 

and other species also suffer from the sustained attention.

Total: 5 (1)

Oystercatcher - 5 (1)

Dersingham Bog - 7th July 2026

 We tried the bog in the cool of the evening in hopes of contributing to the Nightjar feeding routes project using tail mounted trackers, but found we were unable to capture the target female and had to be content with a couple of birds from the double we'd erected for Stonechat in the hour or so before they go to roost.

We managed a single juvenile Stonechat that was marked for the darvic marking project and also a male Nightjar.

Total: 2

Stonechat - 1
Nightjar - 1 

A farm in North Norfolk, another field another Quail - 5th July 2026

 Back again for another few hours in the evening. With temperatures set to raise again, this seems the most sensible and efficient way to ring birds at the moment. The last few morning sessions ended with around 20 or so birds for an early start, 6 hours in the field and taking down between 11am and midday was still uncomfortably warm. This way it's around three hours if we have the energy at the end of the day, start at 7pm and have the nets down as it's getting dark.

We set an 18m in the wood and brought that in for 9pm. Tried the field across the track this time and a double by the barn where we base ourselves. We saw a Quail in flight as we set the single, and eventually, just as we were about to pack up got a male in the double net. This evening we also heard a female calling, so there are no less than three birds in this relatively small area. We've also heard birds calling from other fields around our house, confirming this as an exceptional year for Quail in Norfolk.

Male Quail

A lot of the cereal crops in this part of Norfolk look ready for harvesting early, although extremely short stemmed. One of our farmers tells us that they usually expect to harvest in mid to late July, and the crop condition is a result of the weather, with much of the crop dead. I've noticed that the grains look very small and the harvest will not be a good one. Hopefully the birds using the fields will have time to move out before harvesting. The birds at this site can sometimes be heard in adjacent uncultivated fields with rank vegetation so they are quite mobile.

Juvenile Whitethroat

Total: 10

Blackcap - 3
Blue Tit - 1
Chiffchaff - 1
Quail - 1
Whitethroat - 4

Snettisham for ring reading and Pectoral Sandpiper - 4th July 2026

 There was a highish tide and we went along to try for some color ring combinations on waders and darvic codes on gulls. As it turned out we didn't do well at all, only finding birds with codes that were either too far away to be read, or partially obscured or in the case of a couple of Mediterranean gulls broken and incomplete.

However, it did mean we were in the right place when a scare passage migrant was found along the shore line as we walked back.

Pectoral sandpipers bred in the arctic regions of North America and Siberia and are the most common North American wader to occur in the UK.

A farm in North Norfolk - 3rd July 2026

 An evening outing to a site of ours where we've heard Quail, We didn't expect much since we had only heard one bird calling, but the endorsement was now on our licences and we thought we'd give it a go, along with a singe 18m net in the wood where passerines go to roost.

Amazingly, we did catch a Quail, even seeing its gradual approach before flying straight into the second panel of our net. A second bird approached close to the net but remained on the ground and evaded capture.

We haven't done much mist-netting of late and the smattering of summer warblers from the wood net were much appreciated.

Total: 12 (1)

Blackbird - 2
Blackcap - 4
Chiffchaff - 2
Dunnock - 0 (1)
Lesser Whitethroat - 1
Quail - 1
Whitethroat - 2