Stanwell Moor - 3 August 2014

We decided to make an evening visit, originally we had planned to go to Chobham Common and try for Nightjars again, but with a strongish windy we decided against that, and give the Hirundine roost a go. There has not really been many Hirundines coming in this year, though the numbers are never high, but we have had Hobbies most nights which does tend to put off any Sand Martins or Swallows staying too long at dusk. Tonight was another Hobby night, and no Hirundines came in, and it was a fairly quiet evening altogether with just six new birds, all Warblers.

Total: 6 (2)

Sedge Warbler - 1
Reed Wabler - 4 (2)
Blackcap - 1

Wraysbury GP - 3 August 2014

Took a trip over to Wraysbury C6 to do some more Sylvia warblers this morning. We were expecting that numbers might be down as CES on C4 (only a few hundred metres away) got 46 birds yesterday and seemed to indicate that birds had cleared out while the weather was favourable.

We were able to play tapes and restricted ourselves to 7 nets that caught a total of 54 birds. Not many retraps and the balance between Whitethroat, Blackcap and Garden Warbler had definitely changed over the last few days. Linnet, Green Woodpecker and Lesser Whitethroat were a nice bonus.

 4F Reed Warbler

 3J Linnet

 3J Goldfinch

 4M Lesser Whitethroat

 3 Garden Warbler

Totals:   50 ( 4)

Green Woodpecker - 1
Robin -1
Dunnock -  2 (1)
Song Thrush - 2
Reed Warbler - 1
Lesser Whitethroat - 1
Whitethroat - 13 (2)
Garden Warbler - 11
Blackcap - 6
Blue Tit - 1
Long-tailed Tit - 2 (1)
Chiff-chaff -2
Willow Warbler - 1
Goldfinch - 5
Linnet - 1

Chobham and Wraysbury GP - 1 August 2014

We did an early morning start on the south side of Chobham Common, again to try and establish whether it has much of a migration through the site in late summer/early autumn, as undoubtedly in late autumn/early winter the site has a good passage of Redpolls through it. We went to an area we had done before without much success, and today proved to be exactly the same, but with a smaller catch of only one Goldcrest. At 9am, after three hours, we decided to close down. The area is probably not too good for Sylvia migration due to, it being heathland, very little to no blackberries on the site. I have seen once in mid August on the north side an area holding a fair number of Willow warblers, and it might be that other areas may be better for holding Phylloscopus Warblers, rather than Sylvia. Another exploratory visit to this area on the north side will be undertaken later in August.

Total :1

Goldcrest - 1

As this was the second, more or less unexceptional early morning outing, on the way back we stopped off at RG C6 side of Wraysbury GP, only a short walk from the car park and full of black berries. Despite only being there for a couple of hours 43 birds were processed, mainly Whitethroat, 18 new; Blackcap, eight new, and Garden Warblers, six new. What will be interesting, is that since the ponies have been fenced out of part of the site, I have never seen so many flowering plants, which should give a really good natural winter Finch feeding area, the question will be, will they find it, will they be attracted and in what numbers? They had attracted a couple of Clouded Yellows, that as they often do, just spent all their time whizzing around.

Total : 36 (7)

Wren -1
Robin -1
Blackcap - 8 (1)
Garden Warbler - 6 (1)
Whitethroat - 18 (4)
Blue Tit - 1
Great Tit - 0 (1)
Chiff-chaff - 1

Broadwater GP - 31 July 2014

Another Warbler migration visit with MRB and Margaret produced 54 birds, the main species being Chaffinch, with 13 attracted to seed on the ground, with Warblers represented by 10 Blackcaps, eight Chiff-chaffs, five Blackcaps and four Willow Warblers. One of the Blackcaps had been rung further south by someone else within the ringing group, but we yet have to find out where, but will be a technical control as it has travelled further than 5km.

Bullfinch - 3J

Garden Warbler

Blackcap - 3J male

Green Woodpecker - 3 male

Totals: 51 (3)

Green Woodpecker - 1
Wren - 3
Robin - 2
Song Thrush - 1
Reed Warbler - 2 (1)
Garden Warbler - 5
Blackcap - 9 (1)
Willow Warbler - 4
Chiff-chaff - 7 (1)
Blue Tit - 1
Chaffinch - 13
Bullfinch - 2
Greenfinch - 1

Black Park - 30 July 2014

The purpose of this visit was to do another re-evaluation on whether this site has much value as a passerine migration area, as there are a number of birds now on the move. It was clear despite a number of passerines being present at various sites along the Colne Valley corridor, there was very little present in the way of Warblers in the area of the park where we were based, not only from what we caught, but also based on what was seen and heard. This tends to suggest that the River Colne is a prime factor in effecting the areas where passerines migrate through, as most birds are seen/ringed at Wraysbury, Staines Moor, Stanwell Moor, Broadwater, Maple Lodge NR, Stockers Lake and even at Croxley Moor. We caught a single Whitethroat and only one other was seen, plus a single Chiff-chaff. The wood does though hold a considerably sized Tit flock, which may well hold the odd roaming Chiff-chaff and Goldcrest, that often associate with Tit flocks, but other than that I suspect, Sylvia Warbler passage through the park is low compared to other local sites.

Total :1

Whitethroat - 1

Noar Hill - 29 July 2014

A trip to Noar Hill for Brown Hairstreak, despite the hot sunny weather was rather disappointing, with none seen. Three Clouded Yellow were seen, six Silver-washed Frtilliaries, and around 50 Peacocks.

 Red Admiral

Gatekeeper

 Common Blue - female

Small Tortoiseshell

 Silver-washed Fritillary

 Brimstone

 Small Skipper

Stanwell Moor - 28 July 2014

Another evening at Stanwell and with planes landing from the direction of London there was less aircraft noise over the lake than when they take off towards the capital. So far as effects of the airport go, this is the optimum operating system for this site.

We only had a couple of hours since we didn’t get set up until just before 8pm but it was a worthwhile session with 23 birds, of which one 3J Swallow (D776724) was a control. It will be interesting to see where that came from.

We also had the first Willow Warbler of the year at Stanwell.

 

Juvenile Willow Warbler

Again there wasn’t a proper roost since the Hobby was still around, with the added presence of a Sparrowhawk.

Totals: 22 (1)

Swallow – 3 (1)

Reed Warbler – 11

Sedge Warbler – 1

Chiffchaff – 5

Willow Warbler -1

Blue Tit - 1