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

Chobham Common - 18th June 2017

We started the day in an area where we have frequently seen Dartford Warbler in small groups, setting two nets in areas where we have seen birds moving through. The first net failed to get any Dartford Warblers but did capture a couple of this year's juvenile tits, one Blue Tit and one Coal Tit.

On re-positioning the three panel net a new 4M Dartford was in the net before the tape had even been put on. A slight adjustment to the two panel net and we recaptured 4M Dartford Warbler Z072736, a bird that was given its ring by DKL on 9th March 2015. It was also assessed as a 4M at that time.

Surprisingly there was no sign of young Dartford Warblers in the immediate area.

There were the first few Silver-studded Blues on the wing in small numbers. How many Grayling appear on the north side after the fire, we will just have to wait and see.

Silver-studded Blues 

We returned in the evening, seeing three Nightjar and hearing a fourth, but none were captured.

All appropriate tape lure endorsements are held.

Total:

Dartford Warbler - 1 (1)
Coal Tit - 1
Blue Tit - 1

Negev, Israel - Part 1 11 - 14 April

After our stay in Cyprus, we flew directly to Tel Aviv, met up with Michael Holdsworth (who has also ringed with us in Portugal and Georgia in the past) and travelled to Yeruham in the Negev desert. For the next fortnight we will be ringing with Darren and Yoram, with additional help from Eyol, Ronnie and Francis.

Day 1   11/04/2016

Revivim Wadi and lake side.

After a 4.15am alarm we met with Darren, Francis and Yorum at a site by Yeruham Lake to set up the nets. It was quite hard as we had never seen the site in daylight and half the nets were partially or completely in the water - but everything was up by 6am as the daylight dawned.

There had been a thunderstorm the evening before and the number of birds around seemed to have dropped. The locals had not been sure how the storm might affect the birds and apparently there had been a clear out.

 Orphean Warbler

 Pied Flycatcher  5M

Totals: 60 (15)

Nightingale - 1
Cetti's Warbler - 0 (3)
Sedge Warbler - 6
Reed Warbler - 9 (8)
Great Reed Warbler - 2
Eastern Olivaceous Warbler - 3 (1)
Eastern Orphean Warbler - 0 (1)
Lesser Whitethroat - 9
Blackcap - 29 (1)
Pied Flycatcher - 1
Spectacled Bulbul - 0 (1)

In addition we saw Night, Squacco and Purple Heron, single Little and Spotted Crakes, single Gull-billed Tern, two Wryneck, Syrian Woodpecker, Graceful Prinia, Palestine Sunbird and Tristram's Grackle.

In the afternoon we met with Darren to try a catch at Yeruham Garden, a site that is in the process of development. There is irrigation and Darren has been adding new plants and trying to get them established.

Yeruham Community Garden

As unpromising as the area looked, we captured 30 birds, mostly Greenfinch and House Sparrow, but with no Desert Finch, a species that have been caught here in the past.

Totals: 30

Nightingale - 1

Lesser Whitethroat - 2

Blackcap - 3

House Sparrow - 12

Greenfinch - 12

We did have though a couple of Pale Crag Martins flying round and a Masked Shrike, plus a few non-native Common Myna.


Day 2  12/04/2016

The next day we were back at the lake, just a short distance along the shore. We had seven nets outside the perimeter of tamarisk with several more closer to the lake, with some partially or completely over water.

 Nets sited by the lake.

There were lots of crakes around the lake margins although none were caught. Highlights were three Collared Flycatcher, four Common Sandpiper, Masked Shrike and Hoopoe with an extremely early Upcher's Warbler.

 Masked Shrike 5M

 Eastern Bonelli's Warbler aged 4

 Wood Warbler aged 4

 Orpean Warbler 5F

Suspended moult of 5F Orphean Warbler

 Ortolan Bunting 6M

 Collared Flycatcher 5M

 Common Sandpiper aged 5

Upcher's Warbler aged 4

Totals: 109 (5)

Scops Owl -1
Common Sandpiper - 4
Masked Shrike - 1
Kingfisher - 1
Hoopoe - 1

Nightingale -1
Sedge Warbler -2
Reed Warbler -7 (2)
Great Reed Warbler -2
Upcher's Warbler - 1
Eastern Olivaceous Warbler - 0 (2)
Wood Warbler - 3
Willow Warbler - 1
Eastern Bonelli's Warbler - 1
Eastern Orphean Warbler - 1
Lesser Whitethroat -13
Blackcap - 74 (1)
Collared Flycatcher - 3
Ortolan Bunting - 2

 Yeruham Lake

We had a fly over Black Stork and Short-toed Eagle, two Spotted plus a single Little Crake,Water Rail, two Common Terns and a Wryneck.

After a bit of lunch we headed out to a nearby kibbutz with some fields. By this time it was raining and the sand had become wet and claggy. We decided not to risk a walk due to threatening clouds so drove around looking for birds. At Mildreshet Ben Gurtion we had a flock of c15 Bee-eaters and around Sde Boker there was little to see other than sparrows, Spectacled Bulbul and Crested Lark. Our best birds were Montagu's Harrier, Hobby, Southern Grey Shrike (aucheri) and two Desert Finches plus a rather sandy coloured Red Fox.

 Southern Grey Shrike aucheri

 Camels on the skyline

Day 3 13/04/2016

Heavy rain at 4am seemed much more persistent than the showers that were forecast. After a quick call to Darren we all got a few more hours sleep. The rain continued until early afternoon. We took the opportunity, once the rain finished, to get out into the desert and do some birding in the cooler tempertures. Birds seen at Great Makhtesh included Little Green Bee-eater, Desert Lark, Blackstart, Eastern Mourning Wheatear, Scrub Prinia and Brown-necked Raven.

 Eastern Mourning Wheatear giving a quick flash of white primary bases.

 Laughing Dove

 Little Green Bee-eaters

 Desert Lark

 Blackstart

We also saw a Red Fox as we headed back to the apartment.

 

Red Fox

We expected that the lake level would be higher so went to see what the situation was. All the dry rides were now wet and the level had risen to the point that water was now flowing over the dam. With four streams flowing into the lake we don't expect the sites to become useable until after we leave.

Water flowing over Yeruham Dam with onlookers

The previous day we have walked up this track, made our base
round to the left and been some 25 metres from the lake.

Site of two 12 metre nets that had been dry.

 Whilst  checking the site out we manged to flush a Brown Hare.


Day 4  14/04/2016

A great day at the Upper Matash site with 213 birds in total. Most were Blackcap (163), with a good range of other species including Nightjar, Hoopoe, Masked Shrike and Graceful Prinia.

 6F Nightjar

 Male Hoopoe

 Graceful Prinia 5F

 Fat Sand Rat

We saw our first Fat Sand Rats. The animals were busily attending to their burrows after the flash flooding - but mostly feeding. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sand_rat

Totals: 210 (3)

Nightjar - 1

Hoopoe - 1
Nightingale -4
Graceful Prinia - 2 (2)
Eastern Olivaceous Warbler - 17 (1)
Lesser Whitethroat - 6
Blackcap - 163
Collared Flycatcher - 9
Pied Flycatcher - 1
Spanish Sparrow - 1
Greenfinch - 2
Masked Shrike -2

We also saw Cuckoo and Wood Warbler, plus another two Masked Shrike.

In the afternoon we set out for Mitzpe Ramon to see Makhtesh Ramon. The landscape was stunning - and we added White-crowned Wheatear and Sooty Falcon to the trip list.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Makhtesh

Wadi Havarim

Broadwater GP - 26 August 2014

This morning threatened rain but the cloud was low, and as it was still dry after our son had been dropped off at work, we decided to try for Swallows at the sailing club end of Broadwater Lake. The gap at the end of the parking area was narrower than we had thought and we were only able to fit in a 40' net. We put up another 60' with the intention of opening it in between the showers.

We had a couple of audio-lures on and after a while the calls drew in some of the 200+ hirundines that were feeding over the lake. The rain was becoming a little harder when the first three Swallows went in from the side of the lake. Just as we went to extract them a Hobby came storming into the flock and straight into the net. We managed to keep hold of it (even though I (DKL) slipped in my efforts to get round the otherside of the net quickly, landing in some nettles, and now have severe nettle rash - that's still tingling even 5 hours later).

The bird was 2nd summer individual.

 

Hobby aged 5 

There were some more Swallows over the next couple of hours and a single Willow Warbler.

 

Juvenile Swallow 

There were a few lulls in the rain before the weather began to close in and just before we packed up a Sparrowhawk was also captured.

 

Sparrowhawk 3M

Totals: 17

Sparrowhawk - 1
Hobby - 1
Swallow - 14
Willow Warbler - 1