19/06 Greenham Common

Location: Greenham Common - Western Enclosure wk 2026.25-Fri

Session: 19/06/2026 07:40 to 11:00hrs

Present: IW, JL.

Weather: sunny, clear, hot, light breeze.

Nets: 48metres 3 Rides, up from 08:00 to 10:30 hrs

Lures audio: (BC-CC-FC-GC-GW-WH-LW-WO),(W-WC-RT-SF-TP-YW),(GH),(RT), intermittently.

    Juvenile Blackcap                                           Juvenile Garden Warbler

Notes: It was hot today out on the common. 21 ringed but less species variety than Tuesday's visit. All were juveniles dispersing except for a male Blackcap. We expected some Whitethroats as they were singing around the enclosure at nets up, but that is where the stayed. Little bird movement in and around the enclosure as the temperature increased until it was getting uncomfortably hot – one of the reasons I usually stop ringing at 10:30hrs latest June to September.

Recaptures: (00) 

Sightings: No hirundine again today, I was out on the common nearby Wednesday and Swallows were out on the heath feeding just above the ground so had a faint hope there might be some today around the enclosure. Compared to Tuesday it was relatively quiet. A couple  of Dartford Warblers seen, Two male Stonechats singing also Whitethroats but no Willow Warbler song today and the adult Garden Warbler that was singing near the enclosure on Tuesday was also silent. There have been several Painted Lady sightings across the common this week.

16/06 Greenham Common Western Enclosure

Location: Greenham Common - Western Enclosure wk 2026.25-Tuesday

Session: 16/06/2026 07:40 to 10:50hrs

Present: IW, JL.

Weather: sunny, clear, warm, light breeze.

Nets: 48metres 3 Rides, up from 08:00 to 10:30 hrs.

Lures audio: (BC-CC-FC-GC-GW-WH-LW-WO),(W-WC-RT-SF-TP-YW),(GH),(RT), intermittently.

Today’s Male Stonechat - one of two ringed, the other a juvenile and also a male.

Notes: The first visit of the year to The Western Enclosure. We usually start week number 24 but last week was wet and/or windy so conditions not good for ringing. Last year ringing didn’t start until week 31 due to illness. We had a good variety of species that included two Stonechats. The lone Long-tailed Tit was in wing moult. This species is one of the few whose juveniles do a full moult after fledging and become indistinguishable from adults mid/late September; most juvenile passerines do a partial moult post fledging and juveniles of the year still have some juvenile feather into the following year. Several Dartford Warblers (a family party?) were in and around the enclosure for much of the session, but this species is good at avoiding the nets unfortunately for us! Only four of the species ringed had audios playing, the others possibly attracted by other birds in song and/or calling or most likely just passing through.

Recaptures: (00) 

Sightings: No sign of any Swift or hirundine apart from the lone Swallow that flew south before nets up. Don’t often see Kestrel at this end of the common in recent years. A pair of Siskin flew over west calling mid-session; think the occasional pair might breed in the area as singletons and sometimes more are heard/seen in spring and summer over the last year or two. It is noticeable that there are fewer encounters with Magpie at this end of the common - usually there are between 4 and 6 about. Other Dragonfly type species were also seen but were moving too fast for ID. 

13/06 Thatcham Marsh LNR CES Visit 2026.05

Location: Thatcham Marsh LNR CES Visit 2026.05

Session: 07/06/2026 07:30 to 11:00hrs

Present: JHW, IW, JL, CMD, PRY, IQ.

Weather: Breezy, sunny periods, warm.

Nets: 192M reed bed ride + 2x12M separate rides set in scrub (site B) up from 06:30 to 10:30hrs.

Lures (none):

Chiffchaff an adul male - the last bird of the session and there should be more of these about - Reed Warbler 

Notes: The tree that fell on the ride last winter at the north end of the reed bed has made it increasingly difficult to squeeze the 2A portion of nets in and it has also pushed the ride southward such that there was about a 5metre overlap with the 1A portion. It was decided to reduce the 2A portion by 6metres by replacing one of the 18metre nets with a 12metre net -  the overal coverage is about the same just less overlap between the two portions of the ride. It was breezy for most of the session and the 2A length of reed bed ride was particulalrly affected, it being more exposed to the westerly that was blowing. As mentioned before it seems there are fewer Reed Warbler in the vacinity of the rides. I counted four singing males along the ride when most previous years at least double this number would have been present. Some of the Reed Warbler we did encounter showed little or no sign of breeding activity – BPs in early stage of development and CP difficult to see, some had no sign of either suggesting they were recent arrivals and that a portion of those that arrived earlier this season may have moved on. As can be seen in the table below the overal capture was about 50% better than last years matching visit. However about 30% of this visits total came from the two scrub nets - not erected for last years matching visit. Most of the scrub net birds were juveniles.

Recaptures: (17 )
Cettis Warbler ringed: 12/07/2025, 29/09/2025, 12/10/2025, 26/04/2026x2,
Chiffchaff ringed: 07/06/2026
Sedge Warbler ringed: 26/04/2026, 31/05/2026, 10/05/2026,
Reed Warbler ringed: 03/06/2023, 03/05/2025,18/05/2025, 02/08/2025, 23/05/2026, 31/05/2026x2.          

Robin ringed: 07/06/2026

Sightings: No geese sightings is unusual; most adults will be approaching their flightless moult period though. Pochard with chicks on adjacent pit. A few Swifts over and a lone male Pheasant flew over north towards “the hill”. Cuckoo still about calling occasionally. Common Tern over a couple of times. A Sparrowhawk high up also the usual Red Kites and a Buzzard and the Kestrel visited the hill less frequently than in recent weeks. A Raven called briefly towards the end of the session. The Garden Warbler near the gate is still singing, a Nuthatch called from the scrub briefly mid-session. A family party of Bullfinch was calling at nets up and just the single pair of Reed Bunting on the reed bed. The Common Hawker had flown into a net while we were taking it down and was carefully extracted and flew off ok – fortunately it had not had time to begin “eating” the net. Marbled Whites on the wing, the first I’ve seen this year.

10/06 Nest Box Report for 2026

 Nest Box Monitoring: 2026

Summary: Four Nest Monitors visited 161 nest boxes on 34 dates between  25th Mar and 8th June 2026. Nest Box occupation has improved over the last six years for Blue Tit and Nuthatch less so for Great Tit. Successful Outcome in Brackets (Bagnor Estate pre-2026 nest records not included in the following table)

                       Species        2021           2022           2023           2024           2025           2026

                       Blue Tit       45(23)         56(39)        56(49)         79(66)        85(72)         77(72)

                      Great Tit       29(21)         33(28)        36(28)         52(49)        34(32)         47(44)

                     Nuthatch         7(5)             4(2)            5(3)           12(11)          6(6)           11(10)

     Spotted Flycatcher           -                  -                  -                  -               1(1)                -

           Pied Flycatcher           -               1(0)               -                  -                  -                  - 

  Failed Pre Egg Stage           9                12               20                8                19               10

                Unoccupied          29                16               16                6                15               16

2026 Summary  161 boxes monitored – 97 Greenham Common, 64 Snelsmore Common.

Species                    Occupied                Succesful                    Failed

Blue Tit                          77                         72                                 5

Great Tit                         47                         44                                3             

Nuthatch                        11                         10                                 1 

Unknow Sp.                   10                           -                                  -

Unoccupied                   16                           -                                  - 

Bagnor Estate 39 Boxes

The Bagnor Feeder CES operation ceased winter 2025/26 so JL did not monitor the Nest Boxes in 2026.

Greenham Common Bowdown NR Ian Quelch Monitored 22 Boxes

Blue Tit          12-Successful     1-Young Deserted       

Great Tit          3-Successful

Nuthatch          1-Succesful       1-Eggs Deserted

Unknown Species                     1-Eggs Deserted

Unoccupied     2

Greenham Common Peaked Hill Jan Legg Monitored 32 Boxes

Blue Tit          14-Successful                                          

Great Tit          7-Successful     1-Young Deserted

Nuthatch          3-Successful      

Unknown Sp   2-Ceased Before Laying.

Unoccupied     4 plus 1 box fell off tree after the last maintenance visit and before the 1st check visit

Greenham Common Peckmore Copse Ian Quelch Monitored 20 Boxes

Blue Tit            6-Successful     1-Young Deserted      

Great Tit          8-Successful      

Nuthatch          2-Successful

Unoccupied     2 plus 1-Occupied By Non-Avian Species

Greenham Common Sandleford Copse Jone Ayres & Derek Bingham monitored 23 boxes

Blue Tit          11-Successful     1-Ceased Before Laying

Great Tit          8-Successful

Nuthatch          1-Successful

Unoccupied     2

Snelsmore Common JanLegg monitored 64 boxes

Blue Tit          28- Successful    1-Young Deserted      1-Eggs or Predated

Great Tit        25-Successful     1-Young Deserted

Nuthatch          3-Successful

Unknown Sp   3-Ceased Before Laying

Unoccupied     8                         

Pulli Ringed JL Decided Not To Ring Nest Boxes pulli  in 2026.

A brood of 6 Nuthatch Ringed at Snelsmore Common – to keep my hand in.

07/06 Thatcham Marsh LNR

Location: Thatcham Marsh LNR

Session: 07/06/2026 07:30 to 11:00hrs

Present: JHW, IW, CMD, JL.

Weather: Mostly overcast, light breeze, cool.

Nets: 3 x12M separate rides set in scrub (site B) up from 08:00 to 10:45hrs.

Lures (none): 

Notes: A non-CES visit so we concentrated on mowing the reed bed ride. We put three nets up in the scrub which CMD looked after while we cleaned up the reed bed ride. All bar the Robins and the Cetti’s Warbler were 3J birds (recently out of the nest) still in juvenile plumage. We took the nets down a bit early as it looked and felt like it was about to rain – it didn’t though!

Recaptures: (01)

Robin ringed: 12/10/2025

Sightings: Not much time to do any watching/listening while mowing/strimming the net ride so probably missed a few but a good species total though. Cuckoo still active. Heard the Mute Swan take-off from the pits south of the railway.