16/04 Greenham and Crookham March BirdList

15/04 Thatcham Marsh LNR

Location: Thatcham Marsh LNR CES Site
Session: 15-Apr-2018 07:30 to 11:00hrs

Headlines: Not a bad session today, a couple of nice captures: Reed Warbler and Willow Warbler also some of the Chiffchaff that stayed in the trees last week came down low enough for us to process eight birds. Not much sign of birds coming into breeding condition yet except for  male each of: Cetti’s Warbler, Chiffchaff and Long-tailed Tit; no brood patches detected.

Weather: Overcast, cool, calm, a few spots of rain mid late session
Present: JL, IW, JHW, JPM, GB, SC
Nets: 210metres 108m+90M reed bed ride and 12M scrub ride up from 08:00 to 10:30hrs
Lure ( none ):
Capture (New/Recapture)

14(10/04)
Species New Rtp 1st CY 2nd+CY CETWA 2 1 indeterminate CHIFF 6 2 indeterminate LOTTI 1 indeterminate REEWA 1 indeterminate WILWA 1 indeterminate	No equivalent 2017 session

Recaptures: (04) recent except:

Cetti’s Warbler ringed 27-Aug-2016
Chiffchaff ringed 03-Jun-2017
Long-tailed Tit ringed 04-Oct-2015

Sightings 43 Species: Ian’s list, no Sedge Warblers, on the reed bed, this week, just the single Reed Warbler, a couple of Reed Buntings and two or three calling water rail. One of the local Ravens was quite active stirring up the crows as it flew around calling. Two Oystercatchers also flew over calling, two of several reported locally this weekend. A nice end to the morning was when my first Cuckoo of the year flew over calling as I carried my equipment back from the reed bed.

13/04 Greenham Common

After a walk round the common Thursday produced two Ring Ouzels and a Wheartear so I thought I'd try playing audio lures of them at the western enclosure today. I put up the usual three nets from 08:00 to 10:30hrs with IW and RJC. Needless to say we didn't even get a sniff of either species. Just the usual two birds processed, a blue tit ringed as a pulli on the 09-May-2017 at a nearby Sandleford Copse nest box (A8) and a 09-Jul-2017 ringed Goldcrest. It was a very dark almost twilight morning so when we heard Owls it was not that surprising. We were just about to add to our bird lists when we realised that one of the Iplayers playing Ring Ouzel on repeat had defaulted to sequential.
27 species detected, three Herring Gulls and a couple of Swallows the best  birds

08/04 Thatcham Marsh LNR

Location: Thatcham Marsh LNR
Session: 08-Mar-2018 07:30 to 11:00hrs

Headlines: The rainy weather just missed us apart from some spits and spots towards the end of the session. We had quite a good session including the first Sedge Warbler of the season. Only a few birds showed signs of coming into breeding condition. One good round of seven birds otherwise just two or three each check. Last year’s equivalent had a similar total but included more migrant species more confirmation that this year is a late spring.

Weather: overcast, few spits and spots, calm
Present: JL, JHW, RGS, RDW, IW, VG, JPM
Nets: 210metres  in 3 rides, 198M of reed bed ride and 12M of scrub ride up from 08:00 to 10:30 hrs
Lure (none):
Capture (New/Recapture)                              Matching visit 09-Apr-2017

19(11/08)	23(12/11)
Species New Rtp 1st CY 2nd+CY BLABI 1 1 BLUTI 2 1 3 CETWA 4 Indeterminate CHIFF 2 Indeterminate DUNNO 2 1 1 GRETI 1 1 LOTTI 1 Indeterminate REEBU 2 Indeterminate SEDWA 1 Indeterminate WREN 1 1 1 Indt	Species New Rtp 1st CY 2nd+CY BULLF 1 1 CETWA 3 Indeterminate CHIFF 4 1 Indeterminate DUNNO 1 Indeterminate GOLDC 2 2 GREFI 1 1 LOTTI 1 Indeterminate REEBU 1 1 Indeterminate ROBIN 2 1 1 SEDWA 3 Indeterminate SONTH 1 1

Recaptures: (08) others recent

BLUTI             1, ringed 20/06/2017 (Z876088 3j at St Marks)
CETWA          2, ringed 07/09/2014 and 10/09/2017,
GRETI            1, ringed 03/09/2017
LOTTI             1, ringed 02/04/2017
WREN            1, ringed 06/08/2017

Cetti's Warbler, a new female on size; no sign of coming into breeding condition yet

The first Sedge Warbler of the 2018 season, probably on stopover before moving north

Sightings 41 Species: A couple of Swallows over together with Sedge Warbler, Chiffchaff, Willow Warbler and Blackcap shows the return of summer migrants to be underway. Diving duck courtship flights also a feature of the morning.

07/04 MARCH LPG