Eco-Warriers

 Olney Infant Academy.

On Friday 5th December I was joined by eight Eco-Warriers from Olney Infant Academy, and their teacher Mrs Lukic, with the objective of replacing seven nest boxes at the Academy.

Box History.

Putting nest boxes up at the Academy was the idea of the late Mrs Ann Murtagh, a former teacher and leader of the Forest School. The initial boxes were built with the help of the Olny Scouts and placed on various trees in 2021. 
The boxes have been monitored every year since and to-date a total of twenty-three Blue Tit and three Great Tit nestlings have been ringed.

Nest Box 6 in 2023

Replacements,

The Eco-Warriers helped with measuring the distance of the nest box hole to the ground, and finding the orientation of the nest box entrance. These measurements, along with the type of tree the box has been placed on, are taken to see if birds have any preference for the height of a nest box and/or the direction that the entrance holes faces.

Eco_Warriers help replace a nest box

The pupils.

The Eco-Warriers were very knowledgeable about the wildlife to be found within the Academy grounds and they were interested to learn what may nest in the boxes and how many eggs may be laid. Let's hope that the new boxes prove acceptable and that next year I can show the Eco-Warriers how we ring nestlings.

Olney Infant Academy has been awarded Eco-School status for the last three years.
Olney Infant Academy

In search of Winter Thrushes

The plan.

Yesterday, 30th October, a group of Northants Ringing Group ringers assembled at Stortons Nature Reserve, Northampton. The aim was to try catching some winter migrants namely Fieldfare and Redwing.
It was a chilly start, about four degrees centigrade, and damp when we arrived just after 6am.

The Beast.

The nets were soon up, including a net system, known as 'The Beast', and built by group member John Boland . This net, which is two sixty foot mist nets, one on top of the other, allows us to reach a height of about six meters and hopefully stand a chance of catching thrushes as they fly across the hedge tops.

The wait.

Each net round was approached with an air of expectation. Would we have wintering thrushes or, as is often the case, a net full of Blue and Great Tits.
As the morning warmed up, and the birds began moving around, we started to have some good catches and despite the lack of thrushes we were surprised by the number of Blackcaps and Chiffchaff we caught. The Blackcaps were mainly first year females and may have been moving through on their way southward.

Ringing base for the morning

The results.

After some six hours we decided to call it a day, as the temperature dropped and the wind started to increase.
We were delighted to have processed eighty-seven birds of which sixty-six were new birds and twenty one were re-traps (birds that had been ringed previously on-site, or possibly elsewhere). Data from retraps is very important because it gives us information on species longevity and site fidelity, and in the case of migrants their possible migration routes.

Redwing (Turdus iliacus)

Goldcrest (Regulus regulus)

The following species were processed. The figure in brackets denotes the number of retraps.

Chiffchaff 9. Long-tailed Tit 10 (9). Wren 2 (2). Goldcrest 7 (3). Robin 3 (3). Reed Bunting 7. Blue Tit 9 (3). Blackcap 7
Redpoll 1. Dunnock 2. Great Tit 1. Greenfinch 2. Blackbird 1. Cetti's Warbler 3 (1). Redwing 2.

In addition to the birds processed we saw Red Kite, Sparrowhawk, Raven, Cormorant and two Stonechat.

 

Supporting Northants Ringing Group.

Northants Ringing Group (NRG) has received an extremely generous gift from one of the group ringers, Lewis Aaron and the family business JKS UK Ltd based in Corby.

On 21^st August Neil McMahon collected on behalf of NRG a brand-new brush cutter and accessories, which will be used for net ride maintenance.

Neil McMahon accepting the brushcutter from Lewis Aaron

 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

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

Marsh Harriers

Norfolk Marsh Harriers.

The destination

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

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.

Kestrel, Tawny Owl and Barn Owl boxes

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Chart below shows totals of summer migrants ringed at Stortons Nature reserve and includes interactive maps of some key recoveries.

Use the maps below to see how these birds travel in their migration route's. 

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. 

The above video is an animation of how Stortons reserve developed. The arial view was produced by Google Earth.

Starlings at Stortons

Starling murmuration at Stortons Nature reserve.

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 again 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.

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"