Saturday 22nd March - The Sand Martins are here.

Quite a lot going on this week. I had a day off on Monday and helped the rangers install some artificial Tern nests on the main lake island. These consisted of some old tyres part filled with gravel. The Terns like a gravel base for their nests and the tyres give somewhere for the chicks to take shelter from both the weather and predators. Hopefully after the failed nests last year we might have some success this year when the Common Terns arrive. Let's hope they like our handy work.

The afternoon was spent planting up the hedge in the Sheep Pen and a few new trees to fill a few holes left after the removal of a few of the older trees. All in all a very satisfying day.

This week has also seen the arrival of the Sand Martins with DK reporting the first ones in the middle of the week and numbers building slowly from then. I arrived in the park early on Saturday morning and had a single Sand Martin in just after I arrived.

Record shot of my first Sand Martin this year

This was followed by groups of 33,7,5,6 and 4 all coming in from the north east, so probably a local roost over towards 100 Acre or Willington GP.

Another noticeable change has been the number of Chiffchaffs in the park. We have been fortunate to have them over wintering on the edge of the park but Saturday saw c20 in the park, a similar number to that recorded by DK on Friday morning. Many of these were found along the south side of the main lake with many none singing birds flitting around the scrub and tree tops. There are also plenty of singing Chiffies in the park, a sure sign that Spring has sprung.

While I was waiting for the groups of Sand Martins to come a cacophony of alarm calls alerted me to the presence of a Sparrowhawk and sure enough a scan of the sky picked up this female who flew into the tree next to me. She is a very different bird to the one we have been seeing regularly, the other being a much greyer bird also showing some pink flushing around the edge of the breast. We even thought the other was a male to start with, until the male arrived and they mated!

Female Sparrowhawk

As usual a wander over to 100 Acre was well worth the effort. The Black-winged Stilt was on the island. There were still a few Wigeon about but numbers a reducing now. Other highlights were the Oystercatchers, Redshanks, Buzzard and at least 3 Ringed Plovers on the Castle Mill earth Works.

Two Ringed Plovers

Ringed Plover

On Sunday TP reported a male Blackcap singing and showing well in scrub by the gap in the Long Hedge, close to the ringing area in 'The Rough'. The first one this year.

CS had 2 Shelduck on Castle Mill, viewed from the earthworks on the east side of 100 Acre.

Priory Volunteers 07/04/2013

I made another early start in the park today in the hope of seeing the Otter again. Someone else had the same idea and beat me to my favoured spot so I set up half way along the Spit. It was much colder this morning than yesterday, -2°C and still dropping.

A single Lesser Redpoll showed well along the main lake reed bed by the Steps. There were at least 6 Little Egrets in the Roost this morning on west Fingers and a Water Rail in the Crescent. 10 Fieldfares passed over, west.

Less cloud meant better light as the sun came up, not just a five minute gap like yesterday. Unfortunately the Otter didn't show and the Great Crested Grebe kept its distance. A pair of Gadwalls were the only things to keep me interested.

Great Crested Grebe

Male Gadwall

This male Gadwall can easily be overlooked but look closely and you see some exquisite plumage and the golden light this morning helps as well!

The female Sparrowhawk was near the nest at Kramer hide. I think this will be a project for me throughout the year assuming the nesting goes well. At the moment both birds are staying over the back towards the nest and there are a lot of small branches in the way for photography. Hopefully we'll see them on the more open perches as time goes on.

Female Sparrowhawk

After the early morning rounds I joined the volunteer group to open up the fence around the Rough ready for it to be fixed/replaced. Another great turnout of volunteers so we managed to complete the entire task in record time. Great work everyone, see you next month.

Recent bird ringing activities

The Constant Effort season is over at Priory Country Park. All 12 visits were completed (including the odd extra visit). I haven't posted CES totals for a while and on this occasion, for my ease, I'm going to lump visits 8-12 all into one (including non-CES birds/sessions).

238 new birds, 57 retraps (in brackets) of 23 species:

Wren 8 (1)
Dunnock 6 (6)
Robin 6 (7)
Blackbird 10 (8)
Song Thrush 8 (1)
Sedge Warbler 1 (0)
Reed Warbler 24 (1)
Whitethroat 25 (6)
Lesser Whitethroat 2 (0)
Garden Warbler 19 (2)
Blackcap 91 (8)
Chiff Chaff 2 (3)
Willow Warbler 2 (1)
Blue Tit 8 (5)
Great Tit 6 (3)
Long Tailed Tit 0 (1)
Chaffinch 3 (0)
Goldfinch 10 (0)
Greenfinch 1 (0)
Bullfinch 4 (3)
Treecreeper 0 (1)
Sparrowhawk 1 (0)
Wood Pigeon 1 (0)

We'll start with the standout total for Blackcap. This site has always been good for Blackcaps - more Blackcaps have been ringed than just about all other species in the park. The total above includes birds caught outside the CES. On Saturday 27th August I caught 26 Blackcaps (the majority new and the majority male). These birds must have moved on and another lot moved in as by the following Wednesday (31st August) I caught 30 Blackcaps (only one retrap from the weekend and only because it's from a late brood & not ready to go yet).



Above: Female Blackcap



Above: Male Blackcap



Above: This bag contains a big living ball of feathers (see below)!



Above: A Wood Pigeon (the big ball of feathers).



Above: A Lesser Whitethroat. This bird represents one of two ringed on 27th August. This species used to be more regular in the park but there have been very few records this year. I assume therefore that these two birds (juveniles) were migrating through the park (we would likely have caught the adults & juveniles earlier if they had bred).



Above: Normally seen in the skys above & normally too good at airobatics to be caught. This juvenile Sparrowhawk is obviously still learning then!

A small flurry

A small flurry of snow didn't stop the bird ringing session this morning in 'The Rough.' The birds came in small flurries themselves although there wasn't much movement or singing from them at all today. 12 fly over siskins, a bullfinch and a redwing were visual highlights.




Above: The 3rd Great Spotted Woodpecker (adult female) caught in 'the rough' during the last 2 sessions.

Below: An adult male blackbird. There are lots of these feasting on the berries at the moment.



Ringing Results

Saturday 27th Nov: 24 birds of 9 species: 2 Long Tailed Tits, 9 Blue Tits, 2 Great Tits, 1 Wren, 2 Dunnocks, 4 Blackbirds, 2 Goldcrest, 1 Great Spotted Woodpecker, 1 Robin.

Sunday 21st Nov: 30 birds of 10 species: 7 Long Tailed Tits, 6 Blue Tits, 5 Great Tits, 3 Wren, 1 Dunnock, 3 Blackbird, 1 Goldcrest, 2 Great Spotted Woodpeckers, 1 Song Thrush and 1 Sparrowhawk.



Above: The sparrowhawk from last week sporting a big bluge - presumably its lunch!