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
Tree
Pipit – Short hind claw.
Tree Pipit – Short 5th primary feather.
All
images curtesy of Kenny Cramer.
