Saturday 18th June

It was pretty quiet around the park this morning but at least the rain held off for most of it. There are still plenty of migrants around with Blackcap and Garden Warbler singing in and around the Rough. A male Cuckoo was also present most of the morning.

100 Acre was also pretty quiet, the highlight being 4 Redshanks.

EG was ringing in the Rough again and everybody ended up there. Myself and JA missed out on the Marsh Tit that was caught and ringed, as we were still back at the STW at that time. However we were in time for a bumper haul when a party of Long-tailed Tits were caught along with a handful of other birds. It was all hands on deck to get the birds processed and released as quickly as possible. As the Long-tailed Tits were a family party they were processed last and held for release together. As the ringers processed the birds I handed out rings and JA turned scribe in order to keep the capture time as short as possible. Along with DK we all released a couple of the LTTs each, at the same time so the family stayed together.

While in the Rough JA spotted a Hobby overhead and we all had good views of it's aerobatic skills as it soared and dived in search of prey. Later a Common Buzzard drifted over north east, again giving great views.

The heavy showers finally caught up with us just after we released the LTTs so having sat out the rain under the Hawthorns in the Rough we decided to call it a day and left EG to complete his ringing session.

Next Sunday is the next guided bird walk and it's an 8am start, see you there.

Saturday 11th June 2011

Nothing special this week although a Garden Warbler was singing in the car park when I arrived. There were also a lot of Swifts over the main lake (~50). The pairs of Mute Swans on the main lake and Fingers both have broods of fluffy youngsters, but the biggest surprise, on my return from holiday, was the Fingers Grebes. So much for 1 or 2 youngsters, they have 4! Also Coot families with 3 and 4 young on Fingers, they seem to be doing well this year, unlike the Moorhens. I also had 2 Cuckoos before meeting up with DK and JA, one over on the south side of the main lake and one in and around Fingers.

JA joined me for a walk along the 100 Acre side of the river where we had a single Kingfisher heading downstream. Also 2 Redshanks, 2 Oystercatchers and a Common Buzzard.

Back to the park and alongside the Long Hedge before Fingers JA spotted a Small Skipper butterfly in the nettles, which also held any number of insects including loads of Ladybird larvae, damselflies and Scorpion Flies.

In the Rough we met up with DK and the ringers. EG was have a good mornings ringing again having just extracted another 6 birds from the nets as we arrived. While chatting we heard a Lesser Whitethroat sing briefly. Earlier EG had a Turtle Dove purring in the Rough.

Bird Ringing - CES Visit 4 - 05/06/11

CES VISIT 4 today 05/06/11: 47 birds of 14 species (retraps in brackets)

Robin 4 (0) - all juveniles
Blackbird 0 (1) - fledged last year and a regular
Whitethroat 4 (0) - 3 juveniles and an adult
Chiff Chaff 5 (0) - 3 juveniles, 2 adults
Garden Warbler 1 (1) - adults of both sexes
Blackcap 5 (0) - 3 juveniles, 2 adult males
Great Tit 2 (0) - both juveniles
Blue Tit 13 (0) - 9 juveniles, 4 adults (including one in moult)
Chaffinch 2 (0) - 1 juvenile and one adult male
Dunnock 1 (2) - one juvenile and the retraps were adults
Wren 0 (1) - fledged last year
Long Tailed Tits 3 (0) - 3 juveniles
Coal Tit 1 (0) - a juvenile and only the second of this species ringed at Priory
Green Woodpecker 1 (0) - an adult male

Very good totals for this site.



Above: This juvenile Coal Tit is only the 2nd bird of this species ringed here (the first being in September 2010).



Above: A Green Woodpecker (my bird of the day).

For more info (including more photographs) of these birds and other sessions, please click here.