SALISBURY PLAIN (CENTRE)
With heavy rain on the ringing site from late the previous evening to around midnight but nothing happening further north should have meant the large numbers of migrants encountered by Matt yesterday should have increased with a fresh overnight influx. However, what actually happened was an almost total clearout. On the bonus side the predicted high winds overnight were replaced with flat calm conditions.
We arrived on site at 0400 and had all the nets up inside an hour. On arrival a Long-eared Owl flew over the car and a Nightjar was flew past us at dawn skillfully avoiding all the nets including the one playing the Nightjar lure. The chat valley net that has been so successfull the last few weeks embarrassed itself by catching a single Sedge Warbler all session and the first net round suggested it was going to be a fairly quiet morning. While we did catch decent numbers of Willow Warbler, Sedge Warbler and Whitethroat numbers were well down on the catches we usually take at this time of year.
Two Tree Pipit's were taped lured into one of the net sets and a single Grasshopper Warbler was caight to add a bit of quality. We also managed to ring 3 Lesser Whitethroat's which is the largest single day catch for the species we've managed this year as well as another big Garden Warbler catch. We also retrapped what will probably be the last Nightingale of the year that we originally ringed in 2009. With the population here all ageing with an apparent all male make up this may be the last one we ever catch.
By 0900 the predicted wind arrived so we had to get the nets down quickly but by that time we had caught most of what was around.
We ringed 119 new with 19 retraps and one control Reed Warbler which to some might sound a lot but was disapointingly about 60 below average. GD/PD/OF
Green Woodpecker 1, Swallow 5 pulli, Tree Pipit 2, Wren (1), Robin 2(1), Nightingale (1), Blackbird 5, Song Thrush 1, Grasshopper Warbler 1, Sedge Warbler 20, Reed Warbler 1(2), Lesser Whitethroat 3, Whitethroat 31(3), Garden Warbler 9(4), Blackcap 14(6), Chiffchaff 1, Willow Warbler 20(1), Blue Tit 1(1), Yellowhammer 2
SWINDON STW
After the intensity of yesterday I opted for a nice quiet little session at my favourite site. I put up two lines of nets and whilst bimbling around the site with time on my hands it took me back to when I first used to watch wildlife on site in the early 1990s. Whilst it is great that so many people are now able to access the site it was great to have the site back to myself for a bit. Simon appeared just in time to make some tea and toast and so I let him ring a few. We had the opportunity to see an adult and juvenile Willow Warbler together, some adults get missed when they have finished moulting because people cannot see the subtle differences in tertial colour (see photo). Simon and volunteer Mike then took a public tour around the site and I did a little bird ringing demo for the group that went down very well. We have been doing some clearance work recently around the edges of the wader scrape and this appears to have worked already with 8 Green Sandpipers present along with a Dunlin which is the first for a few years.
There appears to have been a bit of a clear out recently with Reed Warbler numbers dropping sharply but clearly Garden Warblers are moving with a site day record 11 ringed. 3 more Lesser Whitethroats continues the fine year for this species which is my favourite warbler. MP,SW
Reed Warbler 9 (4), Sedge Warbler 9 (1), Blackcap 23 (6 ), Whitethroat 14, Lesser Whitethroat 3 (1), Garden Warbler 11, Willow Warbler 6, Chiffchaff 1 (1), Dunnock 1, Long Tailed Tit 5, Song Thrush 2, Goldfinch 2, Swallow 1, Reed Bunting 0 (1)
