21/07 Greenham Common

Location: Greenham Common Western Enclosure (wk29)
Session: 21/07/2023 07:35 to 10:50hrs

Notes: Seven more Blackcaps and three Garden Warblers today. According to many other ringing Willow Warbler are having a bad year with low numbers of juveniles which seems to be confirmed by their absence this week when usually week 29 is the beginning of the main movement through towards the peak week 32 dropping to one or two stragglers week 39. The second out of habitat Reed Warblerof the year and one of the Coal Tits (the adult) in heavy wing and tail moult was of interest; think it to be the first Coal Tit in full moult that have processed.

Present: JL,IW
Weather: cloudy with sunny periods, very light breeze, warm
Nets: 48metres 3 Rides, 18M, 18M and 12M up from 08:00 to 10:30hrs
Lures: Warblers, Misc Migrants, GH, RT intermittently.

Recaptures: (00) none

Sightings: Just three Swift over seen distantly east of the enclosure, The Swallows in twos drifted south flying about. Saw a hawker dragonfly but too fast to ID and a very distant and quite high, a raptor probably a female Sparrowhawk was well off the common towards Newbury. Few insect seen unlike a walk round Crookham Pools yesterday when six species of dragonfly and 13 species of butterfly seen and counted; I stopped trying to count the Gatekeepers at 50.