On arrival we found that the grass and dry weeds from the bank had been cut and removed. This is probably a safety measure to avoid grass fires, but will no doubt deter birds with so much cover gone. Grateful to be expecting lower temperatures than of late, we erected 5 nets and prepared for rain. At one point it was necessary to close nets and take refuge in the car for ten minutes, but the weather app was accurate and once that squall had gone through there were no further showers.
The site wasn't at all busy early on, with the only evidence of birds while setting up, being numerous Robins tacking from all the hedgerows. As the day drew on we also noted a couple of Kestrel, a Buzzard and a Sparrowhawk, but none of these found the nets. Warbler numbers and bird numbers in general seemed to have dropped, but we did get a couple of birds that had been ringed at Wraysbury C6. In the case of Garden Warbler APN0864 only two days beforehand. Whitethroat APN0618 was also ringed on C6 on 4th August. It seems odd that these birds have moved North at this time of year, but that may have been a result of the patchy heavy rain showers with thunder and lightening that have been bubbling up at very localised locations over the last couple of days. There was also a Garden Warbler with ring Z546765 not recognised as belonging to a local group. We await details.
Totals: 35 (8)
Robin - 2
Dunnock - 2
Song Thrush - 1
Reed Warbler - 1
Lesser Whitethroat - 1
Whitethroat - 6 (3)
Garden Warbler - 1 (2)
Blackcap - 20 (2)
Willow Warbler - 0 (1)
Goldfinch - 1