19/10 Thatcham Marsh LNR

Location: Thatcham Marsh LNR
Session: 19/10/2025 07:30 to 11:00.hrs
Present: JHW,IW,RAD,JL,JA.
Weather: overcast, calm, cool, occasionally spotting with rain.
Nets: 18+18+36+36 metre of net along reed bed ride plus a 12 metre scrub net up from 08:00 to 10:30hrs.
Lures (audio): (BC-CC-FC-GC),(FF-RE),(YB),(SK-LR),(LT),(GL) intermittently.

Notes: With rain forecast from about 08:00hrs we didn’t expect to stay long but fortunately apart from a few spots of rain occasionally we manage to ring until 10:30hrs when the spotting became more persistent. Still a few Chiffchaff about that included a bird ringed elsewhere (looks like the original ringing has yet to be entered on the BTO database though so probably a few days until details available). Also, a single Blackcap and a few Goldcrest. The unexpected species was a Reed Warbler, a late passage bird. Not the latest we have ringed Reed Warbler here though, excepting some before the 10th Oct  when we often ring one or two the latest was 23/10/1994. Perhaps a sign of global warming is that all the late October birds on the system have been rings since 1994, almost all are this century (Range 1970 to date - 10,266 new and 6,239 re-trapped Reed Warblers).
 
The  Cetti’s Warbler ringed elsewhere that we re-trapped on the 12/10/2025 here had been ringed at Titchfield Haven Nature Reserve, Hampshire on the 06/09/2025 - 36 days ago 65 miles away.

FG =age indeterminate

Recaptures: (05)

Blue Tit               ringed: 28/04/2024.

Cetti’s Warbler   ringed: 16/04/2025. 2906/2025.

Chiffchaff            ringed: ringed elsewhere, original data not yet available.

Wren                   ringed: 16/10/2022

Sightings: The Reed Bunting was calling out on the reed bed at nets up but not detected subsequently. A

Pintail, a female or eclipse male, flew quite high first west then a few moments later returned over east. 

Several small groups of Redwing flew about as did a Siskin or two, also a noisy flock of these was heard but

not seen (obscured by tree cover) when returning across the plank bridge at nets down.