17/06 Thatcham Marsh LNR CES visit 05

Location: Thatcham Marsh LNR CES visit 2018.05
Session: 17-Jun-2018 05:45 to 10:40hrs

Headlines: It was spotting with rain when we arrived and the rain radar showed a rain front over us, the blue turning to green and some yellow (drizzle to heavy showers); we decided that as we were here we would put up the standard nets expecting to take them down sooner or later when it rained. Apart from some spotting occasionally, the rain never materialised allowing us to complete visit 05 uninterrupted. Captures were mostly from the first six nets in the ride and included several new Reed Warblers and a quite early juvenile; not the earliest as we had four on visit 2014.04. A juvenile Magpie was a bit of a surprise and we thought it was a new species for the CES but we had captured one on visit 2000.12. It is not looking good for the Sedge Warbler population as we captured just one today. Long gone are the double figure captures, 1993 to 2000, when number matched and sometimes surpassed the Reed Warbler catch. A “control” Blackcap and Reed Warbler both extracted on the same net round was good. We don’t know where the Blackcap came from yet but it was ringed as a juvenile in 2017. The Reed Warbler we captured several times in 2017 and this year, it was ringed at Charlton STW Bedfordshire as a juvenile on the 19-Jul-2015. This year’s visit 05 is below the visit average of 41, ranged 1993-78 and 2013-15. The 2017 visit 05 was a week earlier and the schedule below included some birds from additional nets; the capture from the standard nets was 36 and  so similar to the current visit but a little more species variety.
Given the unpromising start it turned out to be a good enjoyable session.

Weather: Overcast, spotting with rain for about the first half hour or so and a little towards the end, calm early, breezy later, cool.
Present: JL, IW, JHW, RDW, RGS
Nets: 198metres in one standard reed bed ride up from 06:15 to 10:15hrs
Lure (none):
Capture (New/Recapture)

36(20/16) visit 2018.05	44(22/22) visit 2017.05 11-Jun-2017
Species New Rtp Juv Adult BLACA 1 1 2 BLUTI 1 1 1 1 CETWA 3 3 CHIFF 1 1 2 GRETI 2 2 MAGPI 1 1 REEBU 1 1 REEWA 8 12 1 19 SEDWA 1 1 WREN 1 1 2	Species New Retrap Juv Adult BLACA 3 1 2 BLUTI 3 2 4 1 CETWA 2 2 CHIFF 1 1 DUNNO 1 1 GRETI 2 2 GRSWO 1 1 1 1 REEWA 7 13 20 ROBIN 3 3 SEDWA 1 2 3 WREN 2 2

Totals of the last ten years for visit 05

2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018
56	35	52	31	15	27	33	36	36	36

Recaptures: (16) all recent except:

Reed Warbler ringed 12-May-2013, 30-Jul-2015, 06-Sep-2015, 03-Jul-2016, 13-May-2017, 16-Jul-2017, 23-Jul-2017
Wren ringed 25-Jun-2017

Today's "control" Blackcap

Sightings 41 Species: Just a species list today, about 10 Swifts circled over for most of the morning, in fact there was quite a lot of hirundine activity. Other than this and a short squeal confirming that Water Rail is still on site list no notable species.