Broads CES and Kestrel Pulli

3JJJ's

A very early morning (03:30) in the broads found us attempting to catch cuckoo's for the BTO's Cuckoo Project, not far from our CES. We opened the CES at 04:30 as usual, though a poor show from the birds resulted in about 30 birds (totals uploaded later) and no cuckoos. A couple of 3JJJ's (recently fledged Jays - no post juvenile moult) were the highlight.






This afternoon a fellow Norwich and former UEARG ringer Danny Thomas very kindly invited a couple of us out to ring some Kestrel pulli (chicks) in a box on the outskirts of Norwich. 4 Pulli were ringed. These were my first Kestrels, after having several adults bounce out of mist nets and never doing any pulli before, so many thanks to Danny.

CES Sessions

CES Norfolk Broads


CES 5 (21st June)
The longest day was definitely not the best day and the day also finished with a washout. Despite good conditions early on, overcast and still, the birds weren't moving (or weren't there!) A total of 7 birds - a few Sedge Warblers, a gropper, a juv Robin... Rubbish!

CES 4

A narrow window of good weather saw the wind drop to acceptable levels and a trip to our CES in the Broads. The weather was too good really with sun glare on the nets from about 7am. Catches were about as expected or slightly lower than in previous years:

Catch (retraps in brackets)

Grasshopper warbler  1(2)  both from previous 2012 sessions

Sedge warbler 9(4)  1 was a 3J in July 2011 at this site and the rest from 2012 previous sessions

Reed bunting 7

Great tit 7(1)  First caught  as a 5m June 2010.

Robin 3

Willow warbler 4(2)   one first caught as a 4F June 2011

Reed warbler 3

Long tailed tit 4

Bullfinch 2

Treecreeper 2

Whitethroat 2

Marsh tit (1)  first caught May 2011

Cettis warbler 1

Chiffchaff 1

Blue tit 1

Total  47(10)

We also ran a moth trap- few species and low numbers compared to last year with just 20 specimens of 14 species

Eyed hawk moth 3

Poplar hawk moth  2

Elephant hawk moth  1

Drinker  1

buff tip  1

buff ermine  1

flame wainscot  3  * notable A

brown rustic  1

Oblique Carpet 1  * BAP species 

Silver ground carpet 2

Aethes cnicana 1

Clepsis spectrana 1

Agriphila straminella 1

Donacaula forficella  1  * notable B

CES 3

                        New            Retrap

SEDWA            7             2

GRAWA            2

REEWA             1             1

WILWA             4             2

BLACA              2

GRETI                1

TREEC               2              1            (2 new were 3JJ’s)

WREN                2

BULLF               1

CETWA             1

BLUTI                               1

Total                  23            7

MUTSWA            1 (extra)

A better day at Waxham

Following two flunks at Waxham over the past few weeks (catching about 5 birds a trip), yesterday was much more successful. As well as quite a few new birds it was nice to get a good number of returning willow warblers and whitethroats caught in previous years. We also spring trapped a wheatear and a nice male stonechat. While attempting to spring trap wheatears we also found this nice juvenile Pallid Harrier flying over the ringing site!

Total 36 new (19 retraps)

First summer Pallid Harrier over Waxham.

Wheatear 1
Stonechat 1
Blackbird  1
Robin (2)
Dunnock 3 (1)
Wren 1
Blackcap 3
Whitethroat 12 (4)
Willow Warbler 4 (6)
Chiffchaff  5
Great Tit 1 (2)
Blue Tit (1)
Long-tailed Tit  (3)
Goldfinch 4
Chaffinch 2

More Horsford and more swans

An in the field update from Horsford...

1 Goldcrest
5 chaffinches
2 Bramblings
1 wren
And a load of tit.

So far

At Whitlingham yesterday we again failed to catch anything other than those pesky swans, 10 more before we ran out of rings.

Horsford session

A fairly average session at Horsford Woods was brightened up by a stunning male Sparrowhawk and another Brambling.

Swanning Around at Whitlingham

A few members of the group went down to Whitlingham CP to ring some wildfowl, unfortunately nothing was playing ball except the swans. But they did well and caught c.20 new swans as well as a few ring-reads. A couple of weeks before a couple of us also caught 2 mallards, one new and one retrap. 

Recent sessions at Horsford Woods have been quite good with about 120 birds last Sunday and probably approaching 80 birds on Thursday. Mostly tits and chaffinches with highlights being a couple of bramblings and a redpoll.

A chilly morning at Horsford

February Totals from campus :

Great spotted
 woodpecker 1 control

Wood pigeon 2(1)

Magpie 1

Wren 1(1)

Dunnock 3(12)

Robin (16)

Blackbird 10(1)

Long-tailed Tit 1

Coal Tit (1)

Blue Tit 4(33)

Great Tit 1(21)

Treecreeper 1

Chaffinch 2

Greenfinch 2

Goldfinch 4(1)

Ringing sessions over Christmas and the New Year

10 sessions spread out over the Christmas break saw a total of 233 birds caught, including a wintering Blackcap, a Redwing, and a "close ringed" Goldfinch - as close rings can only be put on birds when they are a few days old, this individual was probably a captive bird that escaped. 

There were of course plenty of the usual birds, Great tits, Robins, Long-tailed tits and Blue tits galore. 

This catching effort was mainly for Emily's mini-project looking to see if different brands of mist net differ in a) the number of birds they catch b) the number of birds that either see the net or c) the number of birds that 'bounce' (fly into the net and then fly out of it again). Provisional results suggest no significant difference, which is good!