12/07 Thatcham Marsh LNR

Location: Thatcham Marsh LNR CES Visit 2025.08

Session: 12/07/2025 06:00 to 11:10hrs.

Present: IW,JHW,JL,RAD,AB,DL.

Weather: sunny, clear, bright, very hot towards the end of session, calm.

Nets: one 198M long reed bed ride plus 12m scrub ride additional net up from 06:30 to 10:30hrs.

Lures (): None

Notes: Good to catch up with AB back from St Helena. Not a bad session, total is a little below the average of 47 for CES visit 8 (range 2016 - 23, 1997 - 89). Although the total is similar to last years matching visit, the make up is different. For CES visit 2024.08 almost 50% of the total was made up of Reed Warbler. This was the peak fledging of this species here; this year’s peak fledging of Reed Warbler was for visit 2025.07, probably due to this year’s settled (but very hot) weather. This visit seems to have coincided with a post fledging dispersal of scrub species wandering on to the reed bed.

Recaptures: (05)

Reed Warbler ringed: 11/05/2024, 19/05/2024, 03/06/2025.

Wren ringed: 03/07/2022, 09/04/2023.

Sightings: Just one sighting of a single Swift this session, Swift will begin to move south over the next couple of week, most except maybe a few stragglers will be gone by mid-August. Very little movement bird-wise over the area today, most sightings of them flying about.