Stanwell Moor - 8 July 2012

One of our rare visits this spring, turned out to be a pertinent reminder why we have not been much this year. A late session down pour, luckily did not effect any birds but ended up with two very wet ringers, working a very wet site. Catch was moderate with 27 birds caught, of which 19 were new birds. We re-trapped one of our earlier 3J Cetti's and also had two Swallow's, including our first juvenile of the year. We also re-traped control Reed Warbler L271161, first controlled at the site on X and X380544, a re-trap originally ringed on 26/6/2009 at the site. This is only the second site re-trap this year from a previous year.

 Greenfinc - female 3J

Totals: 19 (8):

Swallow - 2
Dunnock - 4
Robin - 2 (1)
Blackbird - 2
Cetti's Warbler - 1
Reed Warbler - 2 (6)
Blackcap - 1 (1)
Chiff-chaff - 3
Starling - 1
Greenfinch - 1

Ringing ride views:

Garden - 30 June 2012

The first ringing in the garden for some considerable time. Recently we have been having a lot juvenile Blue and Great Tits coming in, supported by a reasonable numbers of Gold and Greenfinches. There have also been a family of Great Spotted Woodpeckers fairly regular on the peanut feeder. Unfortunately the garden is relatively small in depth and the net very quickly puts birds off coming, often at times makes us wonder why we put it up. Only four birds were caught, including on the juvenile Woodpeckers.

Great Spotted Woodpecker - 3

Total: 4

Great Spotted Woodpecker - 1

Blue Tit -2

Great Tit -1

Stanwell Moor - 26 June 2012

We made another visit to the site tonight, in what is feeling like a rare occurence this spring/summer. No Hirundines were caught, but a couple of Starlings from the roost were caught, with the birds all over the ringing area this evening, together with another new 3J Cetti's Warbler, plus a re-trap of the one the previous visits birds. We re-caught L271161 which is new bird at the site this year, originally having been rung on 25/7/2010 at Bedfont. In total 16 new birds were processed, with 11 birds being 3Js of various species.

 

Total: 16 (6)

Wren -1 (1)
Dunnock -1
Robin - 2
Blackbird - 1
Cetti's Warbler - 1 (1)
Reed Warbler - 4 (3)
Blackcap - 1
Chiff-chaff - 2
Blue Tit -1 (1)
Starling - 2

Stanwell Moor - 20 June 2012

There had been no visits to the site for three weeks so an evening sortie was planned. The shoreline of the lake had receeded a little, but the reedbed rides were still much wetter than usual.Wellington boots were again essential to get to and work the 170ft and 30ft net runs.

Due to the unseasonal amount of rain, Chris was armed with brush cutter and strimmer in order to battle the ever increasing biomass emerging in the dryer areas of the net rides at ground level.

The area seemed quiet, other than intermittent interruptions from the sound of groundwork being undertaken in other rides about the site.   There was little bird song and apart from terns fishing in the lake there seemed to be nothing much above the shallow water.

As well as numerous rabbits and the feathered visitors and residents, Stanwell also gets the odd floral  gem and the only Bee Orchid known at the site has been recorded for the second year. More of a surprise was the exotic plant pictured below.

 

 Bee Orchid

This green specimen was found hidden amongst the brambles alongside one of our overgrown rides. The leaves may be instantly recogniseable, and if not the pot could be a clue to its identity. I can only imagine the look on the face of whoever put it there when they return to find the ride completely clear and ready for ringing action. After consideration we decided the Police would not be interested in a stakeout for this solitary plant. We strongly suspect it will be gone when we next visit. If we see any doped up rabbits we'll know the reason why.  

Only 13 birds were captured. Most welcome were two juvenile Cetti's Warblers. This was not entirely unexpected (we'd acquired the appropriate licence) as at least two singing males were known to be present. However,we have never caught more than one youngster on any one date before.  We managed to catch three young Starlings, representing just a tiny fraction of the post breeding flock now roosting in the Willow carr. We caught immature Chiff-chaff (2), Lotti and Wren. We also managed an adult female Swallow with BP5. The retraps comprised a Great Tit, caught for the third time since July 2009 when it was already an adult and two adult Reed Warblers. Both second captures for the year, one was control V967422 that was first netted on 22nd May and the other had been caught and ringed on the 13th of May.

 

Cetti's Warbler

Totals: 10 (3)

Cetti's Warbler - 2
Reed Warbler - 0 (2)
Chiff-chaff - 2
Swallow - 1
Great Tit - 0 (1)
Long-tailed Tit -1
Wren - 1
Starling - 3

Yoesden Bank - 20 June 2012

A quick morning visit before work found myself at the site a little too early and any butterflies did not materialise much until around 9am. A few remaining Adonis Blues were seen, about six, all very worn, together with a fresh Marbled White,a single Brimstone, a couple of Large Skippers and quite few Small Heaths and Meadow Browns.

Meadow Brown

Small Heath

Adonis Blue

Adonis Blue (female)

 Small Blue

Bee Orchid

Wrecclesham - 17 June 2012

There has been an introduction of Glanville Fritillaries to an old sand pit site at Wrecclesham, which according to someone we met there suggested they had been going for 11 years, but I had thought they had been introduced more recently than that, but certainly this was their third year at the site. We were visiting towards the end of their flight period and probably saw no more than eight individuals, along with some newly emerged Large Skippers and Meadow Browns, plus an odd Common Blue.

 

Glanville Fritillary

Large Heath

Bee Orchid

Stocker's Lake - 14 & 16 June 2012

I am afraid I could not resist it, with the Little Bittern only being about 10 miles from home I could not go and see it, well try. Thursday evening unfortunately proved fruitless apart from a Little Egret flying over, but Saturday morning was more productive with nice views of the female Little Bittern as feed in the reeds on the edge of the River Colne. It was followed by a singing Cetti's Warbler as I noted down some cr Mute Swans on Bury Lake, which due to the fact I was writing them on my hand, half were lost when I washed them before emailing them off to Mike Reed who is ringing them!