Welcome to the Northants Bird Ringing Group

Tuesday, 24 June 2025

 Summer Solstice ringing.

Overview.

Kenny Cramer is one of the senior ringers with Northants Ringing Group (NRG) and is the ringer in-charge of the Linford Lakes Nature Reserve site. Although this site is in North Buckinghamshire, as a bird flies it is right on the border with Northamptonshire, and therefore with British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) permission, we use NRG rings on this site.

Narrative and pictures courtesy of Kenny Cramer.

Early start.

Today was the summer solstice, and the longest day of the year brought us two things - a 2am alarm call... and plenty of birds! Luckily, ringers were also in plentiful supply this week as we set about processing 111 birds of 22 species, 94 of which were newly ringed, the majority being comprised of newly fledged youngsters.

 On the warbler front, we encountered 25 chiffchaffs, 18 blackcaps, 8 reed warblers (one of which was ringed elsewhere in the UK), 3 sedge warblers (our first of the year), 3 cetti's warblers, 2 garden warblers, and a whitethroat. Mercifully we were not over-titted with "only" 13 blue tits and 5 great tits. A roving gang of long-tailed tits remained out of range.

 

Reed Warbler

Sedge Warbler

Adding to the variety were two kingfishers, two treecreepers, a jay, a woodpigeon, a juvenile great-spotted woodpecker, and an imposing carrion crow. To top things off, we added another 2 new cuckoos (male and female) bringing this year's tally to 7.

Cuckoos

Carrion Crow


Tally for the day. 

Figures in brackets denote re-traps (birds ringed previously).

Blackbird 3 (1) Blue Tit 12 (1) Blackcap 18 Wren 6 (1) Robin 8 (1) Jay 1 Whitethroat 1
Dunnock 1 Chiffchaff 22 (3) Carrion Crow 1 Sonth Thrush 1 Treecreeper 2 Kingfisher 2
Great Tit 5 Garden Warbler 1 (1) Reed Warbler 1 (8) Cuckoo 2 Cetti’s Warbler 1 (2) Greenfinch 1 Great Spotted Woodpecker 1 Sedge Warbler 3

Wednesday, 18 June 2025

Red Kites

 Courteenhall Private Estate.

Ringing Red Kites.

After his recent foray into Norfolk our Group Chair, Chris Payne, this week ventured onto the private Courteenhall Estate with the aim of ringing some young Red Kites. Chris has worked with the estate staff for some time, monitoring the Owl boxes and after considerable planning , it was finally assessed that the young kites were of a ringable size. The ringing was again carried out under strict Schedule 1 regulations, because although Red Kites are a familier sight these days in our skies, they are still a protected species.

Scaling the tree.

To reach the Red Kite nest Chris enlisted the help of Dylan Donnelly, who holds a City & Guilds Certificate in Tree Climbing and Aerial Rescue. Dylan scaled the tree and deftly passed the young Kites down, using large black cotton bags to keep them calm and after the rings were fitted the young were hauled back up as quickly as possible and returned to the nest.
Dylan Donnelly at the nest.


Ringing.
Red Kites take a large ring and young birds can take a larger ring than full grown adults because their legs are fleshier. Fitting these rings requires lengthy training, to ensure that the right amount of pressure is applied to close the ring properly, without harming the bird. The picture below shows a G ring on the left, used for adults and an H ring on the right which may be used on young birds after inspection of the leg by the ringer. Also shown are the pliers used to fit the ring. At the time of ringing other biometric data will be collected such as weight and wing length.
Pliers and rings









Outcome.

The mornings activities were successful, with three young Kites being ringed and returned to the nest and the thanks of Northants Ringing Group goes to Courteenhall Estate for allowing access to the estate.
Young Red Kite





Tuesday, 17 June 2025

Norfolk Marsh Harriers.

Last week Chris Payne, Chair of Northants Ringing Group (NRG) and one of his trainees, Suzy Boys, ventured into the wilds of Norfolk to ring Marsh Harrier nestlings, under Schedule 1 licence.

To get to the nests required wading through long grass and using telescopic ladders to traverse deep, muddy ditches.


Four nest sites were located and a total of ten chicks were ringed, which more than made up for strenuous efforts of reaching the nests and the resultant nettle stings.
Young Marsh Harriers

Ringing.

Each young bird is fitted with a uniquely numbered metal ring, the details of which are entered onto the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) database, Demography Online (DemOn). Marsh Harriers are an Amber Listed species on the Birds of Conservation Concern (BoCC) listing, and all data helps build a picture of the breeding success for these wonderful birds.
Placing a ring on a young Marsh Harrier



Chris Payne with young Marsh Harrier

Friday, 13 June 2025

Simon Wantling Wildlife Photographer

Owl monitoring.

Simon Wantling is a new trainee with Northants Ringing Group (NRG), who has a passion for Owls and wildlife photography.

Prior to contacting Northants Ringing Group Simon had been erecting Barn Owl, Tawny Owl, and Kestrel nest boxes in Bedfordshire, working with local farmers who use regenerative farming practices, and all the boxes are fitted with remote cameras, so that he can gain evidence as to whether the farming practices are working, and to gain a greater insight into their lives. To date Simon has twenty boxes that he monitors, with a further ten planned for this year, ready for next year’s breeding season.


Owl Boxes

Kestrel, Tawny Owl and Barn Owl boxes

Barn Owl box instalation

Simon Wantling installing a Tawny Owl Box

Using the Reolink network Simon can monitor these boxes remotely and has obtained some remarkable footage, like a young Tawny Owl fledging from the box, and Barn Owls at their favoured nest box.

Since retirement Simon is now able to devote his time to wildlife photography as Simon Wantling Wildlife Photographer, and his owl studies as SW Wildlife Monitoring.

Retirement has also allowed Simon to commence his ringing training, and he is currently being trained by Group Chair Chris Payne, who is himself monitoring a number of owl boxes on estates in Northamptonshire and Norfolk.

To see some of the fantastic images that Simon has captured visit www.simonwantling.co.uk




Tuesday, 25 March 2025

Mid Nene Local RSPB Group helping Swift nesting

The inspiration.

The Mid-Nene Local RSPB Group had a talk about Swifts by Laurinda Luffman of the RSPB in January 2023. Lurinda’s talk covered the rapid decline in Swift numbers and the work local Swift groups were doing by putting up nest boxes. There was a lot of interest from our members, particularly about what they could do to help and about Swift nest boxes. After that, I asked if the group would support a local Swift group and use some of the money that we raise to put Swift boxes in local churches. The group were supportive and that was that!

The plan.

Following some visits to measure up the belfries of some churches in the autumn of 2023, the construction of nest boxes began in earnest in early 2024. With Swifts being long-lived birds and the possibility that it could take a few years for them to take up residence in the nestboxes, it was decided to build the nestboxes to last. The nest boxes were built using marine plywood and all the joints were glued and pinned. For extra protection, they were all given three coats of fence preservative. This may sound a little extreme for nestboxes installed inside belfries but, whilst installing some nest boxes in the church of St Nicholas at Overstone, a squally shower demonstrated that rain can be blown through the louvred windows and half way across the belfry floor.

Nest boxes

 Swifts collect their nesting material on the wing, by catching feathers and pieces of grass blowing in the wind. The nesting material is then glued together using their saliva. This makes nest building a very time-consuming process. To give them a head start, all the nestboxes were fitted with nest concaves, which also ensured they had a nice sturdy cup in which to lay their eggs. These were constructed using squares of plywood, of varying thicknesses, with concentric holes of different sizes. Once glued together, they provided a cup-shaped profile with a vertical rim to prevent eggs rolling out.

Internal view showing nesting cup

The nestboxes were also designed to ensure that their use could be monitored. The internal nestboxes were constructed with opening panels on the back, and the external nestboxes were fitted with opening lids.



Participating churches.

So far, nestboxes have been fitted inside the belfries of St Johns Church at Cranford, All Saints Church at Mears Ashby, St Peters and St Pauls Church at Sywell, St Nicholas Church at Overstone and St Laurence Church at Stanwick. Four nest boxes have been installed in each of these churches.

Visiting the church belfries has been quite an adventure and most enlightening. They all posed their own obstacles and challenges. Whilst some were quite easily accessible via spiral staircases, even if they were somewhat worn, some involved climbing very steep ladders and hoisting the nestboxes up using the bell ropes. 

Installation

The favoured way of installing them was to make them the width of the windows and screw them into the side frames of the louvres. This removed any need to drill and screw into the masonry or mortar; making it much easier to obtain permission to proceed from the Archdeacon. However, this requires careful measurement of the windows as the masonry can be a little irregular. Whilst the church at Overstone had a nice wooden floor beneath the bells, for others, gaining access to the windows involved squeezing past or climbing over the bells, whilst walking on the steel girders that supported them. This was quite an adventure, if a little dirty and dusty on occasion. For some, the side frames of the louvres were quite wide, allowing some leeway for inaccurate measurements, but for others there was little room for mistakes.

St Nicholas Church at Overstone was also different in that there were no side frames to the louvres. Instead, they were set straight into the masonry. Not wanting to drill into the fabric of the church a little thought was required to come up with an alternative method. Fortunately, a very sturdy mesh was fitted behind the louvres to exclude pigeons and other large birds from the belfry. Eventually, the decision was taken to attach the nest boxes to the mesh using heavy duty cable ties.

All of the churches were fitted with some sort of mesh or barrier on the windows to exclude Feral Pigeons and Jackdaws. Holes had to be carefully cut into the mesh to align with the entrance holes of the nest boxes. In the case of the church at Overstone this required the use of a small pair of bolt croppers. The one exception to this, has been St Laurence’s Church at Stanwick, which has wooden weather/sound proofing boards behind the windows. In this case, rectangular holes were cut in the boards using a drill and jigsaw, taking care not to drop the offcuts on anyone below in the churchyard. It was then simply a case of screwing the nest boxes to the weather boarding, without the need to touch any of the original parts of the church.

The width of the windows was found to vary quite a bit. At Mears Ashby there were two windows on each side of the belfry, each wide enough for single nestboxes. However, the windows in most of the churches were wide enough to fit double nestboxes side-by-side.

We have also put up two external Swift nest boxes at the United Reform church at Brigstock. They were keen to have some nestboxes, but did not have a belfry.

However, being a United Reform Church made it a lot easier to get permission to attach them to the outside of the church. However, I was still a little reluctant to drill into the old crumbly mortar. Fortunately, whilst looking around the church for possible places to attach them, we spotted an old oak beam embedded high up in the wall. Screwing them to the beam provided an ideal opportunity to install two nest boxes without risking any damage to a listed building. 


Other Wildlife

One thing that all these old, undisturbed buildings have had in common has been the amount of wildlife that they support. They have all had large quantities of hibernating Harlequin Ladybirds as well as a few species of hibernating butterfly; mostly Small Tortoiseshell and Peacock. Of course, as you would expect with belfries, there was also evidence of bats, but none were seen or disturbed during our visits. Some of the parish councils are also very proud of the wildflowers they have growing in the churchyard, the Swallows nesting in the entrance porches and even the Badgers burrowing under the fences. There has also been some interest in putting up more nest boxes in some of the churchyards for Blue and Great Tits, Robins and maybe even Tawny Owls. Sounds like an opportunity to take this work a whole lot further.

Harlequin Ladybirds

Throughout the summer, we have played the calls of Swifts from the belfries to help attract them to the nestboxes. Unfortunately, there are no signs that the Swifts have found the nestboxes yet. However, we started playing the calls a little late this year due to delays in collecting sufficient old phones and unwanted MP3 players to play the calls. It can also take a few years for Swifts to take up new nest sites, so we will have to be patient and keep our fingers crossed for next year.

Going forward

There are also more churches showing an interest in Swift nest boxes, including those at Raunds, Easton Maudit, and possibly Ringstead and Grafton Underwood. It looks like the adventure is likely to continue with more ladders, ropes and bells to negotiate, and more installation challenges to overcome.

This has all been possible thanks to the support of funds raised by our group, which have been used to supply most of the materials used in the construction of the nestboxes.


The above article was written by Dr. Ian Wrisdale, a senior member of Northants Ringing Group. Ian is the lead ringer at Stanwick Lakes Nature Reserve and also Chair of the Nene Valley Local RSPB Group.

Friday, 24 January 2025

Supporting the RSPB, Big Garden Birdwatch

On 19th January members of Northants Ringing Group supported the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch event held at Stanwick Lakes.

Group member Dr. Ian Wrisdale, who rings at Stanwick Lakes, organised the group demonstration and members of the RSPB Mid Nene local group also provided guided walks, bird food making and a nature quiz.

It is estimated that nearly 200 members of the public came and enjoyed the event and the interaction with both adults and children was excellent, and the ability to give attendees the opportunity to see close up the birds they see in their gardens was very rewarding.

Birds processed on the day were;

Blue Tit.                15 new and 4 retraps.
Dunnock.                7
Great Tit.                7 new and 3 retraps
Long-tailed Tit.       2
Redwing.                 1
Robin.                      5
Wren.                       1

The photographs below were supplied by Liz Williams. Nature Engagement Coordinator, Rockingham Forest Trust, Stanwick Lakes.


Demonstrating bid ringing to visitors



Showing visitors Bluetits




Friday, 20 December 2024

Stortons Summer migrants.

 

Stortons Nature Reserve provides ideal habitat for many of our summer migrants to breed. Over the years Northants Ringing Group has been fortunate to catch a wide variety of these migrants, and we have also been very lucky to recieve notification from BTO that some of the birds, originally ringed at Stortons, have been recovered outside of the UK on their migration.





















Thursday, 19 December 2024

The evolution of a nature reserve

 

The Stortons Pits nature reserve story.

Sometime in the eighties, Chris Payne took a picture of a redundant gravel pit from the top of the old Express lift tower. Decades later a second picture was taken from the exact same spot and from these two pictures this video was produced. The video is meant to be an animated illustration of how you can start with an ugly duckling of a gravel pit and create a beautiful swan of a nature reserve. The project began in the late nineties and was modified with the construction of the Southern Development Link Road and the associated flood relief scheme.

The task of nurturing and managing the site was given to Northants Wildlife Trust now known as, The Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, and Northamptonshire. Wildlife BCN has done a sterling job, together with their band of enthusiastic volunteers. The trust has created an impressive diverse habitat, which is a haven for a wide range of wildlife. After decades of development Storton’s Pits is now an urban reserve surrounded by, roads, sports stadia, housing and industrial/retail outlets.

The eastern end of the reserve had a large open area which was planted with phragmitis to create a reed bed. This is now considered to be Northamptonshire’s largest reed bed and is host to a significant proportion of nesting summer migrants. Storton’s is also the focus of the Northants Ringing Group activities and is an important site within the group. The eastern end dissected by the reed bed, is split into two sides. The north side is reed, scrub and some wood habitat, which is used throughout the winter with some ringing in summer. The south side is primarily a summer ringing site and has a large meadow area with reed, scrub and wood.

All ringing data is submitted to the British Trust for Ornithology, to produce impartial science, communicated clearly for the benefit of birds and people. 



Wednesday, 18 December 2024

Starlings at Stortons

Last week members of Northants Ringing Group conducted some ringing at Stortons Nature Reserve, Sixfields, Northampton.

Arriving before sunrise we were treated to the spectacle of thousands of Starlings leaving their nightime roost in the reedbeds.

As we were leaving for the day the sight of a murmuration was a fabulous end, as agin thousands of Starlings returned to their roost. This time they drew the attention of a Sparrowhawk, hoping to take advantage of this mobile diner, but without any visible success.



Tuesday, 19 November 2024

A SPECIAL RINGING SESSION AT STORTONS ON SUNDAY

 RINGING SESSION IN MEMORY OF JULIE

A ringing session was held at Storton’s on Sunday, where the bird ringing was of secondary importance. We had gathered to celebrate the life of Julie Donohoe, a cherished member of our ringing group who we lost just six months ago. Julie’s husband, Ken had asked if the family could come along to one of our ringing sessions and he was joined by daughter Clare, and son Andy. They wanted to experience why anyone would get up at silly times in the morning to go bird ringing. It was quite an emotional morning but also lovely at the same time.

The bird count was steady with the typical titfest for this time of year with three Redwings, a Cettis, and a Chiffchaff giving a bit of quality. The star bird of the day was a Grey Wagtail, the first of its species to be ringed on this site.

The team gave the family a demonstration of all aspects of bird ringing and explained the importance of cake and coffee when ringing. One of the numerous re-traps was a Blue Tit Julie had ringed back in 2023, so quite an emotional experience for the family.

A small Oak tree Julie had grown from a seed was planted just off one of the feeder rides, in an area where Julie would have made many extractions.


“I first met Julie down here as a volunteer with the Wildlife Trust and like a lot of people she took up ringing which is very time consuming. She loved being down here with the birds and camaraderie, but the most important part of the whole thing were the Jaffa cakes.” John Woollett

IN MEMORY OF JULIE DONOHOE

"Never knowingly on time"


Thursday, 14 November 2024

RINGING SESSION AT STORTONS

 A ringing session took place on Wednesday 13th November at Storton’s pits nature reserve, targeting Redwing and Goldfinch. The team were not disappointed and recorded one of the highest totals for ringed Redwings on this site. 126 birds were processed of 14 species, including 71 Redwing and 17 Goldfinch. As no feeders on this part of the site, tits were very limited. One of the three Blackbirds caught, was thought to be a continental male.

Details as follows

                New                              Retraps

LOTTI           3                                4

WREN          1                                2

CETWA        1

CHIFF          2                                1

REEBU        1

GOLDF      17

BLUTI         6                                2

CHAFF       2

BLACA       2

GREFI        2

GRETI        1                                 1

DUNNO     1                                 3

BLABI        3    

REWI       71

TOTAL      113                           13        Grand total    126


Sunday, 10 November 2024

Red Kite.

 Yesterday, 9th November,  at about 4pm more than seventy Red Kite were seen gathering over Roundhay Farm in South Northamptonshire. It is believed that these birds may be roosting in Yardley Chase, a large area of deciduous woodland. The number of  kites seen in the area has been increasing over the past weeks,



Sunday, 27 October 2024

BIRD RINGING SESSION AT STORTONS

Bird Ringing session at Storton’s on Thursday 24th October .

A small band of multi layered ringers rolled up just before dawn. Well insulated for a typical October day, but by mid-morning layers were being discarded as the weather was more Spanish than St James.

A total of 58 birds were processed, of 14 different species. Most of the summer migrants have now departed and the mixture of birds was typical of an Autumn/Winters day ringing.

Greenfinch have been having a tough time of late, but on site during the breeding season there was quite a vocal presence of calling males. Today’s Greenfinch’s were all born this year, which could be a sign of a good local breeding season for this finch. 

Details of birds

New                                      Retraps

WREN                  4

GOLDCREST       4

CHIFFCHAFF       3

BLUETIT               7                        9

REED BUNTING  1

GOLDFINCH        6

ROBIN                  2                         1

BLACKCAP          1

DUNNOCK           4

GREAT TIT          2                         7

GREENFINCH     3

CETTI’S WARBLER                      1

MOORHEN          1

WATER RAIL                                2

TOTAL OF 58 BIRDS   14 SPECIES 

We also colour ringed our first Moorhen as part of the National Moorhen colour ringing project. The project is led by PhD student Aurora Gonzalo-Tarodo for the Waterbird Colour-Marking Group.

Despite being common, widespread, and familiar the Moorhen is an understudied species in Britain and Ireland. There is limited information available on its movements at local, national and international levels.  

To address these gaps in knowledge, the National Moorhen Colour-ringing Project is coordinating efforts among a team of ringers and independent ringing groups to mark birds across Britain and Ireland. 

By increasing the number of birds ringed and the number of recoveries and sightings, the project aims to discover the seasonal movements of Moorhen, including local dispersal, spring and/or autumn migration within the UK and overseas and other aspects of their lifecycle such as site fidelity and survival.

 

Colour Ringed Moorhen as part of the waterbirdcolourmarking project
The first Colour ringed Moorhen at Storton's Nature reserve

processed as an Adult female.


Friday, 25 October 2024

Well deserved recognition.

 

John Woollett, one of the founders of the Northants Ringing Group, was one of two recipients of the Oliver Rackham Award at the recent Beds, Cambs & Northants Wildlife Trust AGM on 19th October.

John has been recognised for his many years as Warden at Stortons since it became a reserve 25 years ago.

In that time John has trained many ringers, myself and my son included, and his former trainees are still active at Stortons.

Below is photograph of John receiving his award and also a link to the Trusts website where you can read more about the recipients of this years awards and the other diverse work that the Trust undertakes.

https://www.wildlifebcn.org/





Monday, 21 October 2024

Apple Day ringing demonstration. 19th October 2024

 Kenny Cramer supplied the narrative, and pictures.

On Saturday 19th October a ringing demonstration was conducted at the annual Apple Day event at the community orchard at Woughton on the Green.

 For once, I have to be fair to the weather forecast and say that it did exactly what it said on the tin. It was definitely a game of two halves with persistent and occasionally heavy rain hampering our set-up, and causing us to huddle under our gazebo until it dried up enough to open nets. After an initial flurry of tits, we had to close up again while another shower passed through, but then the clouds broke and we were treated to an unseasonably warm and sunny autumn day.

 Always a popular event, the early rain did not dampen anyone's enthusiasm and we were soon surrounded by an eager group who were suitably impressed with the birds we were able to muster - even if this was predominantly blue tits!

 Despite the late and stuttering start, we managed to accumulate 77 birds of 8 species for our demonstration, which included 2 retraps from last winter. As mentioned, blue tits ruled the roost with 52 individuals handled and 16 great tits further bolstered the numbers. The slightly more unusual birds included singles of chiffchaff, woodpigeon, and coal tit. Dunnock, robin and lotti also gave our audience something different to look at.

 Other birds seen and heard despite the commotion of the event (and the live jazz trio) included green woodpecker, jay, red kite and ring-necked parakeet, which seem to be getting established in this part of the city.

 

The RSPB team ready and set up for business

Great interest in demonstrations

Picture of Coal Tit shown to visitors





Saturday, 17 August 2024

Stortons Ringing

On 13th a small group held a ringing morning at Stortons Nature Reserve in Northampton. What was expected to be a fairly quiet session resulted in 100 birds being processed, 90 of which were new birds. 
Birds processed were;

Species                        New                    Retrap
Blackbird                        4                            1
Blackcap                        31
Blue Tit                           4                            4
Bullfinch                         1
Chiffchaff                        5                            1
Dunnock                          5                            1
Garden Warbler               6
Goldfinch                        2
Great Tit                          2                            1
Lesser Whitethroat          2
Long-tailed Tit                5
Reed Bunting                  1
Reed Warbler                  8
Robin                              3                            1
Sedge Warbler                1
Whitethroat                     4
Willow Warbler              5
Wren                               1                           1

A bird ringer at work


The morning office.


Thursday, 15 August 2024

A Hectic Weekend of Bird Ringing


Members of Northants Ringing Group have had a fruitful weekend with over 200 new birds being ringed.

On Saturday Kenny Cramer led a team of five at Linford Lakes Nature Reserve and on Sunday Neil McMahon led a team of three at Brixworth Water Treatment Works. Neil McMahon also conducted a session on Saturday morning at Pitsford Reservoir, trapping forty birds and ringing a brood of Swallows

Linford Lakes narrative by Kenny Cramer.


 Today was the kind of day where you couldn't make up your mind whether you were hot or cold. Walking round the nets was sweaty work, but standing or sitting still for any length of time had everyone reaching for an extra layer. It certainly didn't feel like mid-August!

This was another very busy session, with 162 birds handled consisting of 18 species, 148 of which were newly ringed.

As we would expect at this time of the year, warblers made up the bulk of the catch with 29 blackcaps, 22 reed warblers, 15 garden warblers, 11 willow warblers, 9 chiffchaffs, 3 sedge warblers, 3 Cetti’s warblers, and a whitethroat giving the assembled team some interesting aging challenges. 

We also expect tit flocks, and these helped to bulk out the numbers with 35 blue tits, 11 long-tailed tits and 5 great tits finding the nets. 

Star bird of the day was neck and neck between a spotted flycatcher (only the second for Linford) and a tree pipit (the fifth for Linford). See attached images of a few key ID criteria for tree pipit including short P5, short hind claw, and distinct facial markings.

Brixworth narrative by Neil McMahon.

We managed to put up a fairly full suite of nets yesterday evening and were able to start catching birds pre-dawn this morning. The Two Tawny Owls alongside one of the net rides, the Kestrel living in the tree next to another net ride and the vocal Green Sandpiper all decided they didn't want to join in though! Two bats said they wanted some bling but they were sent on their way! 

On a day of strong passage as evidenced by bird sightings in the county today, we were fortunate to find the warblers. The cloud cover remained for much longer than forecast and the wind held off for those first three or four critical hours which was ideal for us. We pretty much packed up as soon as the sun broke through and the breeze kicked in. 

This is a dry site these days as the reed bed has been lost but you perhaps wouldn't have thought that with the number of acrocephalus warblers we encountered! 

We only processed three re-traps which included an adult Reed Bunting from 2022 and an adult Common Whitethroat from a couple of years ago

Details of the catches from both sites.

Linford Lakes Nature Reserve

Brixworth Water Treatment Works

10th August

11th August

Species

New

Retrap

Species

New

Retrap

Blackbird

4

Blackbird

4

Blackcap

26

3

Blackcap

14

Blue Tit

33

2

Blue Tit

2

Cetti's Warbler

3

Chiffchaff

6

Chiffchaff

8

1

Common Whitethroat

24

1

Garden Warbler

14

1

Dunnock

4

Great Tit

3

2

Garden Warbler

1

Greenfinch

2

Great Tit

2

Long-tailed Tit

9

2

Grey Wagtail

5

Reed Bunting

2

Linnet

1

Reed Warbler

22

Magpie

1

Robin

1

1

Pied Wagtail

2

Sedge Warbler

3

Reed Bunting

1

1

Spotted Flycatcher

1

Reed Warbler

16

Tree Pipit

1

Robin

2

1

Whitethroat

1

Sedge Warbler

22

Willow Warbler

11

Tree Pipit

1

Wren

4

Willow Warbler

9

Wren

8

Total

145

15

Total

125

3

 

 

 

 

 

 

 





Spotted Flycatcher

Tree Pipit

Spotted Flycatcher                                                        Tree Pipit

                          
Tree pipit leg with ring

Tree Pipit primary feathers

                           

Tree Pipit – Short hind claw.                   Tree Pipit – Short 5th primary feather.    

All images curtesy of Kenny Cramer.