North Wilts Group

With Olly sleeping through his alarm, or not setting it properly, or deciding to sleep off his ringing visit to Icklesham, it was left to just my Dad and myself to get things done. After ringing 172 birds last week it looked odds on that we'd be quite busy again but just as we turned off the road onto the range track we hit thick fog which is always a killer to catching big numbers. However, we were suprised to flush 3 Wheatears off the track at the bottom of the valley where we have been catching all our recent Whinchats. Sadly we didn't get any of them but did manage another Whinchat and 2 Stonechats.

While still putting up the nets we caught 2 Sedge Warblers while it was still pretty dark which was just the start of an interesting morning's migration for this species. By 9 o'clock when the predicted high winds hit we had caught 20 which isn't far off our years average catch for this species at this site. Other highlights were another Tree Pipit, 2 Grasshopper Warblers and even 2 Lesser Whitethroats managed to make an appearance which has now crept us into double figures for the species this year, down from an average of 40 a few years ago. We also caught another Redstart which we have now caught on 8 consecutive visits to this site.

In all, 113 new and 10 retraps was a fair return for th morning. It would have been more if Olly had got out of bed. GD/PD

Swallow 4, Tree Pipit 1, Meadow Pipit 1, Wren 2(2), Dunnock 2(1), Robin 5(1), Redstart 1, Whinchat 1, Stonechat 2, Blackbird 2, Song Thrush 1, Grasshopper Warbler 2, Sedge Warbler 20, Reed Warbler 3, Lesser Whitethroat 2, Whitethroat 21(1), Garden Warbler 3(1), Blackcap 16(2), Chiffchaff 3(1), Willow Warbler 15, Goldcrest 1, Chaffinch 2, Goldfinch 1, Bullfinch 1(1), Yellowhammer 1

With extra friends joining us this morning in the form of Gary, Louise and Louise's Mum the pressure was on to catch some nice birds and get good numbers. Thankfully in terms of numbers this was the largest catch of the year so far and the number of quality birds was astonishing.

After the success of the bonus 'Whinchat' net from the other week we put it up again and managed a massive 6 Whinchats on the first net round. First bird of the morning however was a retrap Nightingale that we'd been trying to catch all year. It turned out it was originally ringed in 2010 and has been caught each year since. Soon after we caught our first new Nightingale of the year which was something of a relief and only 4 months overdue.

More Grasshopper Warblers and Redstarts followed and once things warmed up a bit the Tree Pipits started turning up but it was the common warbler species that were most numerous. With 25 new Willow Warblers and 47 new Whitethroats post breeding dispersal prior to migration is well underway. This was shown in the 8 Sedge Warblers caught, impressive for a chalk downland site. The one obvious species misisng from todays catch was however Lesser Whitethroat. While not common at this site we would normally expect to catch 5 or so each session this time of year. It appears that this species population has been massively reduced after last years non-breeding season.

In all we ringed 172 new birds and processed 13 retraps. An impressive total but fits well with the average catch on this site for the time of year. GD/PD/OF

Sparrowhawk 1, Green Woodpecker 1, Swallow 1, Tree Pipit 4, Wren 6(2), Dunnock 10, Robin 4, Nightingale 1(1), Redstart 2, Whinchat 7, Blackbird 1, Song Thrush 1(1), Grasshopper Warbler 2, Sedge Warbler 8, Whitethroat 47(2), Garden Warbler 7(1), Blackcap 28(2), Chiffchaff 5(2), Willow Warbler 25(1), Blue Tit 1(1), Chaffinch 2, Goldfinch 1, Linnet 2, Bullfinch 1, Yellowhammer 3, Reed Bunting 1

Whinchat study group

A stunning mornings ringing with the first big catch of the summer containing lots of quality. Juvenile warblers made up a large proportion of the catch which was amply padded out by something of a Wren-fest.

A good few Grasshopper Warblers were singing while we were putting up nets in the dark. It soon became apparent why in daylight as large areas of prime grassland and scrub habitat has been severely burnt by the MoD firing flares during military exercises and setting the tinder dry grass alight. This had pushed quite a lot of extra birds onto my ringing area, but also will have killed many nestlings of all species that had not yet fledged.

With all the usual nets set up we put up a bonus net in the bottom of one of the grassy valleys and the first two birds it caught were Whinchats. These were later followed by another two and two Stonechats. We caught 3 of the Grasshopper Warblers and yet another Redstart. One of the last birds of the morning was a Tree Pipit which finished off a very productive morning of 130 new and 20 retraps. PD/GD/OF/AC

Stock Dove 2, Wood Pigeon 2, Green Woodpecker 1, Swallow 5, Tree Pipit 1, Wren 10(1), Dunnock 2, Robin 2(2), Redstart 1, Whinchat 4, Stonechat 2, Blackbird 2(1), Song Thrush 2, Grasshopper Warbler 3, Reed Warbler 1, Sedge Warbler 1, Lesser Whitethroat 1, Whitethroat 18(4), Garden Warbler 1, Blackcap 20(4), Chiffchaff 13(5), Willow Warbler 8(3), Blue Tit 6, Great Tit 3, Tree Sparrow 9, Chaffinch 1, Goldfinch 4, Linnet 3, Yellowhammer 2 

Group totals up to mid-July for Matt. There will be 5-600 extra Tree Sparrow pulli to add onto whats here but not all the nest record details have been completed yet. GD