Stanwell Moor ringing site - 10 July 2011

As Sunday evening gave an opportunity to get out on a night that was relative calm conditions we started at 5, and had a fairly good run for the evening with a total of 57 birds being caught. We set up for the first time our willow/carr net run out over the water, which produced nothing exciting, though about 9 a flock of about 15 Starlings coming into roost hit the net, some bounce immediately as as two people waded towards them others were seen peeling away one by one until only five were left to be extracted. Whitethroats again dominated with 14 new, bring this years total already to 53! A fledged family party of Little Ringed Plover was seen with four juveniles and two adults. This potentially contained the three birds rung on 21st June, as I suspected there might have been a fourth juvenile at the time. Through bins one gave the impression it might have been rung but it was too far away to be 100% sure. Full evenings catch was as follows:

Kingfisher - (1)
Sand Martin - 3
Wren - 1
Robin -2
Blackbird - 1
Sedge Warbler - 2
Reed Warbler - 3 (7)
Whitethroat - 14 (3)
Blackcap -1
Chiff-chaff - 1
Blue Tit -2
Great Tit - 2
Long-tailed Tit -2 (4)
Starling - 5
Linnet - 2
Reed Bunting - 2

adult male Linnet

 3 Kingfisher (Sam Jones)

Stanwell Moor ringing site - 6 July 2011

Another evening visit which produced 18 birds, with a Redshank briefly flying around the ringing area but soon departed without landing. Nothing else unusual with a few more Sand Martins and a Swallow to add to the site total, and the run of Whitethroats continues with this year, already exceeding the 16 processed here last year. One bird of interest was the re-trapping of Reed Warbler N826485 from last year. Details of it's history are shown below, but this was originally a control from Kent in 2009 at Bedfont CP, a site nearby and controlled by us last year.

3	31/07/2004	St Margartes’ at Cliff, Kent B2
4 F  B	20/06/2009	Bedfont, Greater London
4 F  B	14/07/2010	Stanwellmoor GP, Surrey

Totals for the evening were:

Sand Martin - 2
Swallow - 1
Dunnock - 1
Reed Warbler - 1 (5)
Garden warbler - 1
Whitethroat - 5 (1)

Black Park - 5 July 2011

A visit to Black park in the hope of the odd Purple Emperor drew a blank, with only seven Silver-washed Fritillaries and a single Purple Hairstreak, and no White Admirals.

A visit afterwards to the RSPB reserve at Church Wood, Hedgerly looking for Purple or White-letter Hairstreak was not especially successful with no real suitably areas found for White-letter Hairstreak, though a single Purple was seen, along with a couple of Silver-washed Fritillaries and a couple of Holly Blue.

A walk along a lane that runs north from Iver Village checking out elms along the footpath was thwarted by overcast conditions, though five Hilly Blues were seen.

Silver-washed Fritillary

Holly Blue

 Meadow Brown

Bernwood Forest - 4 July 2011

Another visit for Purple Emperor did produce one male but despite flying low over the path and thought about alighting, did not flew back into the canopy. Around 11 Silver-washed Fritillaries were seen, all fly throughs, along with 2 White Admirals and up to 5 Purple Hairstreaks (without spending all the time get neck ache looking at the top of Oaks). A single Crossbill was seen and 3 separate parties of marsh tits were heard/seen. The plodding around the woods in the Chilterns has on most occasions produced Marsh Tits so they seem to have a good stable population in the area.

Afterwards a visit to Sydlings Copse, another BBONT reserve that has or had Dark Green Fritillary failed to produce any, though stopping off at Bradenham on the way back produced a single, plus a couple of Small Blues and a few Gatekeepers, plus a newly emerged Marbled White was seen, along with a few older ones.

 Purple Hairstreak - Bernwood

 

Small Tortoiseshell - Sydlings Copse

Large White

Small Heath - Bradenham

Dark Green Fritilliary

Meadow Brown

Small Blue

Gatekeeper

Stanwell Moor ringing site - 1 July 2011

Again another evening visit, with Gavin, plus Tim from Reading. A surprisingly busy evening with 46 birds between 6 and 10pm, and we did not have our willow/reed nets up for at least the first hour. We also had a good mix of species, along with a fairly decent Hirundine catch of 19 birds which for this site is good going. This year the site is having a good run of Whitethroats with 31 done so far compared with only 15 in the whole of 2010. This in part maybe due to some better growth of bramble patches on site and due to a good breeding season, with young possibly also already on the move.

We are also extending the willow/carr ride net further out into the water by putting in a fixed post at the end of the last net 40 ft further out. Unfortunately I forgot to check that the bolts fixing the net post to the base which had been hammered into the mud were long enough to go through both pieces of wood, so we managed to partly get things in place whilst I try and remember to take longer bolts next time. Totals for the night were:

Swallow - 12
Sand Martin -1
House Martin -1
Blackbird - (1)
Song Thrush - 1
Reed Warbler - 4 (6)
Whitethroat - 6 (2)
Blackcap - 1
Great Tit - 1
Starling - 1
Goldfinch - 2
Greenfinch - 1
Reed Bunting - 2

Black Park - 1 July 2011

A visit to Black Park proved very worth while with at least 10 Silver-washed Fritillaries, 6 White Admirals, Holly Blue and 3 Purple Emperors, including a female that came to ground.

Aquick visit afterwards to Horsenden Hill in the hope of coming across some White-letter Hairstreaks was suncessful but I did see the first Gatekeeper for the year.

Silver-washed Fritillary

White Admiral

Red admiral

Purple Emperor - female

 

Gatekeeper

Stanwell Moor ringing site - 30 June 2011

Another evening session with just three of us, with Gavin. A fairly quite evening catch wise with only 26 birds, which included 7 re-traps, but successful in that we had the second juvenile Cetti's Warbler of the summer. I also seem to forget to take any pictures to bright the post up, so I am afraid just some basic data for the day. I hopefully plan to add some extra pages with some ringing totals on them and details of any controls in due course.

Kingfisher - (1)
Sand Martin -1
Dunnock - 1
Blackbird - 1
Song Thrush - 1
Cetti's Warbler - 1
Reed Warbler - 3 (1)
Whitethroat -  7 (4)
Garden Warbler - 1
Blackcap -1
Blue Tit - (1)
Long-tailed Tit - 1
Reed Bunting - 1