Barn Owl boxes - 23rd July 2025

Another day spent checking boxes. We are in the fortunate position of having 15 boxes in use, another 4 empty and suitable for occupation. A further 2 that we haven't been able to check and another 10 that need to be moved, or replaced for them to be useable and in a position where monitoring can be completed safely. Renewing the boxes, put up over 30 years ago and without inspection hatches, is a work in progress.

Fledged juvenile female

Thanks to some inside information from one of the farmers, we were able to add a well grown Lapwing chick to the colour ringed project.

Lapwing chick

Recent harvesting left the Hares somewhat exposed.

Chris all set for pulli capture.

 Total: 10

Barn Owl - 9
Lapwing - 1

Scolt Head Sandwich Terns - up date on birds ringed in June 2025

 After ringing over 300 gulls and terns, of which 128 were Sandwich Terns, we are now beginning to get resightings reported.

To date there have been no Mediterranean gulls and we're curious to to find out about their dispersal. There have been two Black-headed gulls seen, both at Titchwell, so only quite local movements recorded at present.

The Sandwich Tern reports have all been from north of Scolt Head. Resighted individuals are now into double figures with the majority coming from Kilnsea, Beacon Ponds in East Yorkshire with some birds remaining there for several days. There have been two other sightings, one from Coquet Island, Northumberland on the 13th July and this bird was also recorded at Beacon Ponds either side of the Northumberland record. The newest report is of a bird that has reached Wrecked Craigs, Port Sedon, Mid Lothian on the 19th, via Beacon Ponds on the 10th, so we expect further resightings from Scotland to follow.

Juvenile Sandwich Tern. Image courtesy of Tate Lloyd

We have some idea of where these birds are likely to turn up next and await further records to support our expectations of how Scolt Head juvenile Sandwich Terns usually disperse from the site.

Sightings of our birds can be made via https://iceni.shinyapps.io/sightings/

Use the app for an immediate history with map. Photographs are particularly welcome.

Sculthorpe Moor - 17th July 2025

 A good morning session with 62 birds trapped. Leading species Chiffchaff followed by the resident tit species, only three of these being Marsh Tits, two being new and added to the darvic ringed birds for the project.

Singles of Kingfisher, Grasshopper Warbler and Whitethroat amongst the 15 species.

3M Kingfisher

3JP Marsh Tit

To finish off the ringing for the day, we also returned to the second Barn Owl box where there had been two small chicks and an unhatched egg last month. A single, but well grown owlet remained.

Total: 57 (6)

Barn Owl - 1
Blackcap - 3
Blue Tit - 8
Bullfinch - 1
Chiffchaff - 12
Dunnock - 1
Grasshopper Warbler - 1
Great Tit - 8 (1)
Kingfisher - 1
Long-tailed Tit - 4
Marsh Tit - 2 (1)
Reed Warbler - 5 (1)
Robin - 2
Sedge Warbler - 1 (3)
Whitethroat - 1
Wren - 6

Barn Owl boxes - 14th July 2025

 We have been putting the Barn Owl circuits off this year. We have been fortunate to have owlets at the Hawk and Owl Trust, having ringed 2 Tawny young earlier in the year and one box of 2 Barn Owl owlets already ringed with a second pair's brood to be ringed shortly.  But so many people have had boxes with no sign of breeding attempts that we decided to leave it until later in the hope that breeding may be delayed due to the warm weather in March followed by a rather wet spell.

We checked 15 sites (some have 2 or 3 boxes in close proximity), and were please to ring 3, 2 & 4 from 3 boxes. Another box has 4 smaller young that will need a call back.

We still have more boxes to check so there may be more.

Total: 9 (1)

Barn Owl adult - 1 (1)
Barn Owl pullus - 9

Deepdale Farm - 13th July 2025

 Six hours at Hilly Piece and we finished with 42 birds on the sheet. There were no retraps at all and apart from a couple of Dunnocks, all were juveniles. There were rather too many tits for our liking. However, one was showing an unusual colour aberration.

The head and upper body did not show the usual colours for Blue Tit. It was just a shame that post juvenile moult had not begun in these areas, as it would have been interesting to see what the emerging feathers were like.

Lesser Whitethroat

Total: 42

Blackcap - 4
Blue Tit - 14
Chiffchaff - 3
Dunnock - 5
Great Tit - 6
Lesser Whitethroat - 1
Robin - 3
Whitethroat - 2
Wren - 4

Sculthorpe Moor - 10th July 2025

 We managed to get the monitoring of the sedge beds in before the temperature rose to be too hot, with nets away shortly after 11am.

The French Sedge Warbler had moved out of the beaver enclosure where we caught it last week. We caught 10 species with just over two thirds of the catch being youngsters.

Adult Sedge Warbler

Juvenile Marsh Tit with project darvic 22

Total: 30 (6)

Blackcap - 1
Blue Tit - 6
Chiffchaff - 4 (1)
Great Tit - 2
Long-tailed Tit - 1
Marsh Tit - 1
Reed Warbler - 3
Robin- 2
Sedge Warbler - 6 (5)
Wren - 4 

Norfolk Rivers Trust, Ingoldisthorpe Lagoons - 9th July 2025

 Some good captures today although juvenile Acrocephalus warblers are still thin on the ground. Some Sedge and Reed Warblers adults no longer have breeding condition, body moulting has started and some birds are already starting to accumulate fat. There were some nice records of birds ringed in 2024 with one    Reed Warbler ringed when an adult in 2023.

Adult (left) and juvenile (right) Sedge Warblers

Juvenile (in post juvenile moult) and adult Sedge Warblers

Total: 40 (9)

Blackbird - 1
Blackcap - 14
Blue Tit - 3
Chiffchaff - 4
Dunnock - 1
Great Tit - 1
Reed Bunting - 1
Reed Warbler - 9 (4)
Robin - 1
Sedge Warbler - 3 (4)
Whitethroat - 2
Wren - 0 (1)

Blakeney Point - 5th July 2025

 It was a clear, bright and very windy day as we trundled along the beach on our way to meet EMS and the team of wardens to find and mark Little Tern chicks. Two years ago there had been more than 50 of a suitable size to be ringed with darvics, although last year had been a disaster with an eventual mass desertion and there had been no attempt to ring any of the birds.

As we slowly walked the beach it became increasingly clear that this appeared to be another poor year. Apart from a handful of juveniles that had already fledged there were just a few very small chicks, too small to take  a ring, with 4 that could be marked and some nests still with eggs. The Black-headed gull numbers looked to be on the increase and their colony was rather too close to where the terns were nesting.

We were seeing adults bringing food in, and I hope that perhaps there are more nests and young in an area away from where we checked, although that doesn't seem very likely. There is a second colony that wasn't looked at and we hope that there will be more youngsters not far from fledging there.

Our time was limited and we ended having marked just 4 birds. An Oystercatcher chick was a bonus.

Total: 5

Little Tern - 4
Oystercatcher - 1

Sculthorpe Moor - 4th July 2025

 We caught 31 birds before closing at 11am due to a freshening wind. We tried a net in a new position where we often see birds moving into the reeds around the scrape. It turned out to be a good choice as one of the Sedge Warblers was carrying a ring from the French Museum de Paris scheme. This bird was almost certainly bred in the UK, possibly at Sculthorpe Moor, and would have been captured and ringed on the migration south through France. 

Sedge Warbler ringed under French ringing scheme

Museum de Paris ring

We will await details of where this bird was trapped and ringed. Every summer there is a massive ringing effort in France, trapping birds using the reedbeds as many sites are supporting efforts for the Acrola project, recording migrating Aquatic Warblers.

There were only three retraps with a lot of recently fledged birds turning up in the nets.

Juvenile Grasshopper Warbler

Of the 11 species represented there were juveniles of Sedge Warbler, Reed Warbler, Chiffchaff, Grasshopper Warbler, Great Tit, Wren, Dunnock and Jay.

Totals: 28 (3)

Blackbird - 1
Blackcap - 1
Chiffchaff - 8
Dunnock - 1
Grasshopper Warbler - 1
Great Tit - 1
Jay - 1

Reed Warbler - 5
Sedge Warbler - 6 (2 including a French control)
Whitethroat - 1
Wren - 2 (1)

 

GPS tracking of Nightjars - 3rd July 2025

Today we spent more time on the project to confirm foraging areas for the Dersingham Bog Nightjars. This work is being undertaken as most feeding happens away from the breeding area and a project to increase areas of reedbed along the North Norfolk coast may affect the areas that Nightjars rely on.

GPS tracker being attached to the central tail feathers

Birds are processed as normal then have the tracker fitted. 

We managed to retrieve a fourth tracker and deploy a fifth. Trackers are fitted using a feather mount and must be retrieved about a week after fitting, or will fall off a couple of weeks later, should the bird not be recaptured. Retrieval is required in order to download the information. Routes taken on each night are shown separately and the retrieved tags are already informing on areas used, extending all the way to the coast and will help protect areas important for the Nightjars when the planning for extension of reedbeds is finalised.

All necessary endorsements to conduct this GPS tag fitting work held.

Norfolk Rivers Trust - Ingoldisthorpe 30th June 2025

 A restricted session due to the presence of a schedule 1 species, known to be nesting on site. We got just 4 nets up, away from the nest site to avoid creating any disturbance. The ringing of birds at this time of year is unusual here, but was undertaken to support sampling work on a variety of mainly warbler species in the county of Norfolk, looking for evidence of ongoing or past viral infections including Usutu virus, that are now found in some UK bird populations. The sampling process added no more than a few additional minutes before the birds could be released as usual.

Usutu virus is spread by the bite of an infected mosquito and has been found, in very rare cases, to affect humans presumably following a bite from an infected insect.

A total of 22 birds were captured with 13 of these suitable for sampling. We started early and had nets down by 10:30am to avoid the warmer hours of the day.

Age 6 Woodpigeon (sampling of Wood Pigeon 

not within the study remit)

Total: 15 (7)

Blackcap - 5 (1)
Chiffchaff - 4 (1)
Reed Bunting - 0 (1)
Reed Warbler - 1 (1)
Sedge Warbler - 3 (1)
Song Thrush - 0 (1)
Wood Pigeon - 1
Wren - 1 (1)

Blakeney Point - 28th & 29th June 2025

 It continues to be a busy time as young birds edge closer to fledging. 6 young Oystercatchers ringed and marked with darvics on the point, courtesy of EMS & BIB .

Stock image taken on Blakeney Point 2024

Total:8

Oystercatcher - 8

Gull and Tern ringing Scolt Head, Norfolk - 25th June 2025

Fine weather allowed this session to target young Sandwich Tern, Mediterranean Gull and Black-headed Gull at the colony on Scolt Head to go ahead, and be fitted with darvic rings, allowing data to be collected without the need to recapture birds. Information on survival rates, movements and longevity will be collected by observations of interested individuals for years to come.

The planning for this day started months ago with much preparation to ensure a smooth process on the day. The Scolt Head warden selected the date based on chicks being close to fledging to maximise the chances of birds successfully leaving the colony, weather and good tides to bring the equipment and team over to the colony, also assembling a team from Natural England to support the ringers with the capture and marking efforts.

The team consisted of ringers representing Iceni Bird Monitoring Group collaborating with National Trust and Natural England personnel. All necessary permits, endorsements and permissions to carry out this work held.

Over the course of the day 323 birds were marked with darvic rings. This is the first large scale colour ringing effort for gulls and Sandwich Terns in Norfolk for several years.

The birds will be dispersing from the colony soon and sightings of birds in this project can be reported on  https://iceni.shinyapps.io/sightings/ to get an immediate report history of the bird seen.

The Sandwich Terns have green darvics starting K followed by a second letter then a number in white, Mediterranean Gulls have yellow rings starting 2 followed by 3 numbers in black, and Black-headed Gulls have red rings starting 2C or 2H followed by two numbers printed in white. Full details are on the European colour ring birding website. For colour ring projects details see European colour ring birding

Totals: 323

Black-headed Gull - 112
Mediterranean Gull - 83
Sandwich Tern - 128

Resightings of Little Terns YN(BAV) and YN(BCH) at Beacon Ponds, Kilnsea - June 2025

Two of the Little Terns hatched on Blakeney Point in 2023 have been sighted in the colony at Kilnsea, East Yorkshire.

They have now reached an age where they are likely to make a breeding attempt. Last year, BCH was seen at Gronant, Wales in the breeding colony. An unexpected observation as young birds do not usually migrate all the way back to the UK after their first winter.

Many thanks to Tate Lloyd, assistant warden for the observations and images. We hope there may be further records of these terns throughout the breeding season.

Dersingham Bog - 23th June 2025

 We needed to try to retrieve the GPS trackers today, so against our better judgement and despite the strong wind gave it a go.

The first nest went very well, female retrapped and tracker retrieved. Two chicks also ringed.

First tracker retrieval accomplished

The second nest was in a much too windy location, and as she is still on eggs we'll try her tomorrow.

The third nest had a sitting bird that we managed to catch. However, it turned out to be the male rather than female. He was not GPS tagged as the chicks have virtually no down left and are fully feathered. They should fledge soon and tracking him is likely to result in non-retrieval of the GPS device. We'll look again tomorrow to see if she is back.

He was a recapture, ringed on the nest on 24th June 2016.

We also ringed and wing-tagged a nest of three Marsh Harrier. All were males.

Totals: 7 (2)

Marsh Harrier - 3 pulli

Nightjar - 4 pulli (2 adults, 1 had GPS tracker retrieved)

Oystercatchers - 20th June 2025

 A call from Anglian Water staff to notify us that the Oystercatchers at Fakenham Sewage Works have two largish youngsters and within a couple of days we're on site to mark them for the project.

Capture was quite quick and they were soon back, wandering around the filterbeds under the watchful eye of their parents.

Total: 2

Oystercatcher (pulli) - 2

Sculthorpe Moor - 20th June 2025

 Fledging is well underway on the moor. Today along with Blackcap, Sedge Warbler, Wren, Great Tit and Blue Tit young, we caught a second female juvenile Kingfisher that had been bred on the reserve and the first absolute proof that Grasshopper Warbler have managed to get young off.

Juvenile Grasshopper Warbler

3F Kingfisher

It is sad that the Marsh Harriers appear to have failed, neither adult having been seen near the nest site for some days now, however other avian families are doing better.

Total: 19 (5)

Blackcap - 4
Blue Tit - 1
Bullfinch - 1
Chiffchaff - 1 (1)
Grasshopper Warbler - 1
Great Tit - 1
Kingfisher - 1
Marsh Tit - 0 (1)
Sedge Warbler - 6 (3)
Reed Warbler - 1
Wren - 2

Dersingham Bog, Nightjar project - 17th June 2025

We are thrilled to be working with Natural England to learn more about Nightjar foraging routes beyond Dersingham Bog, and grateful to Greg Conway of the British Trust for Ornithology for training with regard to fitting and removal of GPS trackers.

We managed to catch three birds and fit tags that will record their movements. Most feeding occurs away from the breeding grounds, so knowledge of areas used by the birds is important, in order to preserve those sites in future years. One area of particular concern is the plan to increase the amount of reedbed along the North Norfolk coast as that may inadvertently destroy areas that the Nightjars depend on for feeding.

GPS tag fitted on adult female

 It is necessary to recapture the bird usually within a week or two, in order to collect the data before the tag falls off, so this work will require a sustained effort during the summer.

Total: 2 (1)

Nightjar - 2 (1) - all received GPS feather mounted trackers.

Marsh Harrier wing tagging - 17th June 2025

 There have been a few disappointments regarding Marsh Harrier this year. A few pairs didn't return to their usual areas and some known nests were predated. It was therefore a relief to tag a brood of three this afternoon. There was a definite male (requiring an F ring) and female (requiring the slightly larger G ring), with a third bird that had a toe span measurement that might have been either male or female. In such cases it is usual to err on the side of caution and fit the larger ring. In this case the weight and wing measurement pointed to it being a female.

Tag fitting of first chick, a definite female.

Processing complete, the chick is ready to be re bagged and wait 

while the other siblings are processed. 

The male weighed 470g compared to the other two at 620g & 670g

The final chick, measured, ringed, tagged and ready for return to the nest.

Total: 3

Marsh Harrier pulli - 3