I Cant-ley believe the season is over already

As we rapidly approach October our premier reed bed site suddenly feels very quiet, just as our coastal migrant site starts to liven up. With that, our period of more intensive ringing at Cantley reed bed is over for another year. It’s been an interesting season, but a small team of us managed 12 sessions between July and September getting a flavour of the amazing passage of Acrocephalus warblers that pass through the site on their way to Africa, mostly for the first time (~96% of Acros ringed were first-year birds). 

Misty mornings and late nights with swallows are regular features of reed bed ringing

High water levels and plenty of sunshine produced a very good reed growth year and probably helped bump bird numbers up where the high water levels provide extra predator protection. That being said, Swallow roost numbers were down partially as a result of up to 6 Hobbies present in the area which moved the Swallows to alternative roost sites later in the season.

In total 1,402 birds were processed, of which 1,349 were new and 3 were controls. Acros made up 766 (57%) of the new birds, a total we were very pleased with and with 328 ringed it was a very good year for Sedge Warblers for the site. Bearded Tits and Cetti’s Warblers also seemed to have a good breeding season, and are always a pleasure to share the reed bed with. 

Species totals 2020:

Species	New	Retraps	Unique inds.	Total
Reed Warbler	438	19	440	457
Swallow	407	3	409	410
Sedge Warbler	328	15	329	343
Bearded Tit	48	13	52	61
Reed Bunting	53	1	54	54
Blue Tit	18	1	18	19
Cetti's Warbler	15	0	15	15
Sand Martin	14	0	14	14
Wren	8	1	8	9
Yellow Wagtail	6	0	6	6
Chiffchaff	4	0	4	4
Starling	4	0	4	4
Linnet	1	0	1	1
Garden Warbler	1	0	1	1
Great Tit	1	0	1	1
Kingfisher	1	0	1	1
Whinchat	1	0	1	1
Whitethroat	1	0	1	1
Total:	1349	53	1359	1402

A first-year male Whinchat caught on the 31st August was probably our bird of the season, being the first for UEARG.

With 52 different individual Bearded Tits caught this year (48 new), they are clearly doing well on site and can often be heard pinging away in the reed bed.

This juvenile male Kingfisher was another highlight of the season and a species you can never get bored of seeing up close.

Yellow Wagtails were probably present in smaller numbers than previous years this season, reflected in just 6 being ringed. A far cry from the 104 ringed in 2014! 

A good year for Cetti’s Warblers that as you’d expect are often heard belting out their song around the site. 15 individuals ringed being a good total here.

A bumper year for Sedge Warblers passing through, 329 different individuals encountered including this monster that came in at 21.2g (the average on site this season being 11.7g)

Reed Warblers dominated the catch in almost all sessions this season

A special thank you to British Sugar that give us access to the site, and to Kirsty, Jack, Max, Alex, and Adham for their hard work helping on site this year.