Northants Ringing Group : 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