04/08 Thatcham Marsh LNR

Location: Thatcham Marsh LNR CES 2019.10
Session:.04-Aug-2019 06:00 to 11:45hrs

Notes: Conditions ideal today, overcast and calm. The capture although disappointing is not the worst we’ve had. A 28 capture is below the average of 39 for this visit; range 2016-14, 1995-85. Last year’s matching visit total was also poor, and we had additional nets in the scrub, so today’s is quite good given that the reed bed seems all but devoid of birds. The few adults captured were mostly in primary moult. Cetti’s Warblers were singing at each end of the ride this week, none captured today; just one juvenile so far this season. We had a better capture of Reed Warbler than for visit 10 2018 and no Sedge Warblers last year.

Weather: overcast, calm, warm, a light wind at nets down

Present: JL, IW, D, JHW

Nets: 198metres of standard reed bed net in one ride, up from 06:30 to 10:30hrs

Lure ( ): none

Capture (New/Recapture) 28(24/04) 10 Species	Matching Visit: CES10 (05/08/2018) 20(14/06) 8 Species
Species New Rtp Juv Adult BLACA 1 1 BLUTI 3 3 BULLF 1 1 CHIFF 2 1 1 LOTTI 1 1 REEWA 9 1 9 1 ROBIN 2 2 SEDWA 1 1 1 1 WHITE 1 1 WREN 4 1 4 1	Species New Rtp Juv Adult BLACA 2 1 1 CETWA 1 1 CHIFF 1 1 2 GRETI 1 1 REEWA 3 3 2 4 ROBIN 1 1 WHITE 2 2 WREN 3 1 4

Recaptures: (04) recent except

SEDWA         ringed 06/05/2018 (regular here this year)
WREN            ringed 06/07/2017

Sightings 38 Species: The Bittern was seen by three of us; I missed out! IW and DL saw it fly west just above the scrub by the cars, JHW saw it fly over as we were returning along the ride from a net round, unfortunately for me I was just about to exit the ride and John was behind me, mid-way along the ride; it flew between us. We don’t normally get Bittern here this time of year.

Bittern (1) Blackbird Blackcap Black-headed Gull Blue Tit Bullfinch Canada Goose Carrion Crow Cetti's Warbler Chaffinch Chiffchaff Dunnock Goldfinch Great Spotted Woodpecker Great Tit Green Woodpecker Grey Wagtail Jackdaw Jay

Kingfisher Little Grebe Long-tailed Tit Magpie Mallard Moorhen Mute Swan Nuthatch Pied Wagtail (yarrellii) Raven Reed Bunting Reed Warbler Robin Sedge Warbler Swift (1) Whitethroat Willow Warbler Woodpigeon Wren