16/06 THatcham Marsh LNR CES visit 2019.05

Location: Thatcham Marsh LNR CES visit 2019.05

Session: 16-Jun-2019 06:00 to 11:15hrs

Notes: We arrived with the weather looking very iffy but decided to give it a go, expecting to not complete the session. The fates seemed to be against us from the start, but we persevered. On arriving at where we park a tree had collapsed on to the parking area, so we cleared it. We crossed the new bridge to gain access to the ride to find halfway along that another tree had collapsed on to the ride. Thoughts of abandoning the session returned but as the tree needed removing anyway, we cut it back sufficient to clear the ride. By this time the clouds had lifted a little and with the brighter outlook we put up just the CES standard nets and had them up by 07:00hrs; 30minutes later than intended. During the session there were short spells of light rain but using rain radar apps we could see they each would last just a few minutes and some of the heavier rain clouds passed each side of us fortunately. Once just as I had cleared the nets of birds and was at the far end of the ride it began raining quite heavily and I decided that the nets should come down, however by the time I reached the bridge at the other end, the rain had stopped and we had one of the many sunny spells that were a feature of the later part of the session. Surprisingly we manage the full four-hour stint. With the recent unsettled rainy weather unsurprising the capture was a little lower than for visit 2018.05. Some of the Reed and Sedge Warblers were in the early stages of being in breeding condition. Some that had been in breeding condition when captured earlier in the season showed no sign of being in breeding condition. We missed a large tit flock that went through just before nets down. We captured just one juvenile Great Tit. We did not expect to complete visit five today so given the fallen trees we had to clear and the possibility of heavy rain we were pleased to have completed the session.

Weather: unsettled, some light rainy periods, cool, sunny spells, calm to breezy as the rain fronts passed over.
Present: JL, DL, IW, GB
Nets: 198metres in one standard reed bed ride up from 07:00 to 11:00hrs
Lure ( ): none

Capture (New/Recapture) 31(17/14) 9 Species	Matching Visit: 17/06/2017 36(20/16) 10 Species
Species New Rtp Juv Adult BLABI 1 1 1 1 CETWA 1 1 CHIFF 4 1 4 1 DUNNO 1 1 GRETI 1 1 REEBU 2 2 REEWA 5 7 12 ROBIN 2 2 SEDWA 1 4 5	Species New Rtp Juv Adult BLACA 1 1 1 1 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

Recaptures: (14) recent except

CETWA          ringed 12/04/2018 a regular capture this season.
REEWA         ringed 23/07/2017, 17/06/2018, 30/07/2018
We also captured a REEWA ringed 23/08/2018 near Shrivenham, Oxfordshire, 38KM, it must have been to West Africa and back between captures.                                                         

Sightings 42 Species: The BTO have updated BirdTrack and spoilt it in my opinion; it is more complicated to use and get a list so might drop the list from here unless I can find a quicker way of creating it. Cuckoo are still calling usually they stop around mid-June. As mentioned above a good flock of tits and warblers went through; must have been 30+ individuals, many were juvenile Great Tits. We probably had a Hobby, but it was through low before we realised what it might be and had disappeared behind the treetops before we could get a good view.

Greylag Goose Canada Goose Mallard Tufted Duck Cormorant Red Kite Sparrowhawk Moorhen Black-headed Gull Cuckoo (2) Swift Woodpigeon Green Woodpecker Great Spotted Woodpecker Magpie Jay Jackdaw Carrion Crow Goldcrest Blue Tit Great Tit

Swallow House Martin Cetti's Warbler Long-tailed Tit Chiffchaff Blackcap Whitethroat Sedge Warbler Reed Warbler Nuthatch Wren Starling Blackbird Song Thrush Mistle Thrush Robin Dunnock Chaffinch Bullfinch Goldfinch Reed Bunting