Wraysbury GP ringing session - 24 September 2011

A trip out Saturday am with the ringing group, was one of the few occasions this September a session at this site has been viable as it is easily affected by wind conditons. It is usually a very good site early/mid September for Blackcaps, but with other local catches and with September nearing an end, the potential for the day was not high. As it turned out this was partly correct, Blackcap numbers were not high, with only 29, not a particularly high no, though the days over all totals was 121, this is not significnat for September where 200 + would be expected. There was one surpirse though, a late Nightingale, only the seventh for the site with the last in 2001, a spring bird in April, with no previous autumn records. This species used to breed at this site but along with Grasshopper Warbler has in recent years disappeared from the site.

Goldcrest - 3

Meadow Pipit - 3

Nightingale - 3 (and below)

Totals:

Green Woodpecker - 0 (1)
Meadow Pipit - 20
Robin - 4 (2)
Dunnock - 6 (1)
Nightingale - 1
Blackbird - 2 (1)
Blackcap - 29
Chiff-chaff - 26 (2)
Goldcrest - 5
Blue Tit - 3 (3)
Great Tit - 1 (1)
Treecreeper - 1
Jay -1
Chaffinch - 4
Goldfinch - 3
Linnet - 1

Stanwell Moor ringing site - 23 September 2011

Another morning session with a few of the RRG team, Tim, Colin and Sam. It was a relative quiet morning with Warblers more or less absent, with a catch of only 46, mainly supported by 24 Meadow Pipits and a few Goldcrests, being the first of the autumn at this site. An evening visit with Denise produced another eight birds, and a clear indication that it is time to consider any attempts for Swallows or Sand Martins at roost are now over and that any future visits at this time of the day for this year will cease.

Kingfisher - 3 female being weighed

Totals:

Kingfisher - 1

Meadow Pipit - 24

Wren - 1

Robin - 2 (1)

Dunnock - 2 (2)

Blackcap - 1

Chiff-chaff - 6

Goldcrest - 2

Blue Tit - 7

Great Tit - 1 (1)

Linnet - 2

Greenfinch - 1

Stanwell Moor ringing site - 22 September 2011

As the opportunities for catching departing summer migrants seems to be drawing to a close we squeezed in another

evening roost. There were no signs of House Martin or Swallow, and attempts for Reed Bunting and Greenfinch were also unsuccessful. It did, however, turn out to be a little out of the ordinary since we ringed 10  and birds never even got the A rings out of the box. Don’t think we’ve ever done a purely AA session before.

Total as follows

Cetti’s Warbler – 0 (1)

Chiffchaff – 9

Long Tailed Tit – 1

Blue Tit – 0 (1)

Broadwater GP - 22 September 2011

A new ringing site has been arranged within the old works area at Broadwater GP with Lafarge. The area is mostly now dominated by Buddleias with another area of young Silver Birch. It often when birding seems pretty active and full of birds, but this first visit is late in the autumn migration season for an inland site, at least as far as Warblers are concerned as we edge more into the winter arrival period rather than the summer departure one. This particular site will be run jointly with the RRG Maple Cross team. For our first visit four of us turned up with Peter Delaloye, Mike Beatley and Kenny Cramer, catching 64 birds, which was not bad considering a lack of warbler migrants. The odd thing was the high number of the Blue Tits caught being adults, a higher proportion I would normal expect elsewhere, with a ratio of 15:11 (adults to juveniles). Nothing of particular note was caught, though a large flock of House martins were present all morning, with a Hobby present and six Wigeon present on the lake, plus a single Dunlin on the washoff mud at Moorhall pit.

Kingfisher - 3

Treecreeper - 3

Goldcrest - 3 male

Totals:

Kingfisher - 1
Song Thrush - 1
Robin -2
Dunnock - 1
Blackcap - 4
Chiff-chaff -  8
Goldcrest - 6
Blue Tit - 26
Great Tit - 5
Long-tailed Tit - 7
Treecreeper - 1
Chaffinch - 2

Stanwell Moor ringing site - 18 September 2011

The day turned out to be a much better ringing day than weather reports had foretold.

Ringing had not been planned, but there had been reports of visible migration of swallows on Saturday and it seemed too good an opportunity to miss, so we loaded the gear into the car and were on site and set up by 4.30pm. 

We noted small bands of Swallows crossing the lake in waves then heading on, low across the mounds, but none were tempted by the tapes while there were still available daylight hours. The catching was slow but we did manage some Chiff-chaffs along with a single Meadow Pipit. As the light began to fail, a group of some 50+ Swallows began to circle the reed-bed. The Hobbies didn’t seem to be around and we were optimistic that the roost attempt would be a success this time. The birds gradually flew lower and some appeared to go in as others made another circuit of the lake. It was shortly after this that a group of birds flew fast towards us, skimming the reeds, with a big female Sparrowhawk in hot pursuit. With the sky devoid of Swallows we went down to check the nets and found that 5 juveniles had been caught along with another new Cetti’s Warbler (3F).

Total as follows:

Meadow Pipit - 1

Swallow - 5

Cetti’s Warbler - 1

Chiff-chaff - 4   

Blue Tit – 0 (2) 

Stanwell Moor ringing site - 16 September 2011

Following the continuous frustrations with disruption at the roost due to attention from aerial predators, and the success of the previous day, we and Tim Alexander decided to try for Meadow Pipits as well as the Hirundine roost. As usual, the conditions at the top of the soil heap was rather breezier than the surrounding area, but nevertheless we set up our triangle, did the minimum of weeding possible, got the mp3 going and made a swift retreat to erect the usual nets. It was a slow start but the first bird was a retrap, Cetti’s Warbler L851703, captured on 30^th August weighing 14.1g and now showing a weight increase of 2.2g, more that a 15% up to 16.3g. The hobbies patrolled overhead and apart from just one party of Swallows, that inspected the nets and rapidly left, there was not the most remote interest shown in forming a roost. Starling numbers were also well down on those seen on previous evenings. For all the effort of walking up and down the hill we managed just 4 Mipits.

Totals:

Meadow Pipit - 4

Cetti’s Warbler - 0 (1)

Reed Warbler - 1

Chiff-chaff - 5

Reed Bunting -1 

Stanwell Moor ringing site - 15 September 2011

After our solo visit Wednesday night, early next morning a team of us returned, with Carl, Karl and Helen joining me from the ringing group, with Denise having to go to work, which turned out to cause her much frustration as we caught the sites first Little Owl, a bird she has not rung either. I was hoping with four of us, that today would not be a repeat of our last morning's visit, on 3rd, which only had arelatively low catch of c30 birds. Luckily, I set up a net on one of the mounds in the hope of catching some local Meadow Pipits, and fortunately it paid off, producing 39 out of the 108 birds caught. Other birds of interest from the morning, as well as the sites first Little Owl, was our first Tree Pipit coming from the Mepits net, and a Woodpigeon, that was in the same net together with the Little Owl. We also caught we a single Sedge Warbler and Whitethroat, with the other Warbler species being three Reed Warblers, 18 Blackcaps and four Chiff-chaffs.

One of the first Meadow Pipits of theautumn.

Tree Pipit - 3

Little Owl - 3

Woodpigeon - 4

Mipit nets in a V set up

Totals :
Woodpigeon - 1
Little Owl - 1
Kingfisher - 0 (1)
Tree Pipit - 1
Meadow Pipit - 39
Robin - 8 (3)
Dunnock - 8 (1)
Blackbird - 2
Song Thrush -1
Sedge Warbler - 1
Reed Warbler - 3
Whitethroat - 1
Blackcap - 18
Chiff-chaff -4
Blue Tit - 6 (1)
Great Tit - 3
Chaffinch - 1
Linnet - 3
Reed Bunting -1