04/07 Thatcham Marsh LNR CES Visit 2026.07

Location: Thatcham Marsh LNR CES Visit 2026.07

Session:     04/07/2026 06:00 to 11:00hrs

Present:      IW, JHW, JL, KMB+1.

Weather:    overcast, breezy, warm.

Nets: 192M net along the reed bed ride (net lengths 1A & 2A) + 1 12M rides set in scrub (site B) up from 06:30 to 10:30hrs.

Lures:   (none) 

Although taken at different time of the year both the above photos are taken facing south from approximately the same spot. The left hand winter shot shows the area of reed bed then known as the triangle as it was in 1972. This was cleared in the late 1970s when the extensive reed beds south of the railway were excavated for gravel and to create the fishing pits – the reed bed was owned by the angling club. In the left hand photo the bridge was over the Moor Ditch stream. When access to the gravel now fishing pits was created the stream was blocked and diverted into an exisiting adjacent overflow colvert through the railway embankment, allowing the track to be created under the railway bridge giving access to the gravel workings now to the fishing pits. The small area of reed known as the triangle held wintering Bearded Tits each winter from 27th Feb 1971 to 6th Apr 1975; 96 birds were ringed or retrapped, most came from RSPB Minmere Nature Reserve near Saxmundam Suffolk. In the 1970 most of the immediate area was reed bed with some scrub, now much of the area is mature scrub with small areas of fragmented reed.

Notes: Comparison with last years matching CES visit 2025.07 starkly shows the apparent drop in Reed Warbler and Sedge Warbler numbers on the main reed bed something we have been aware for sometime. It would be nice to think that numbers will pickup over the next visit or two, hope so however there are few singing in the vacinity.

Recaptures: (14)

Cettis Warbler ringed: 12/07/2025, 13/06/2026, 21/06/2026x2.

Chiffchaff ringed: 12/07/2025.

Reed Warbler ringed: 11/05/2024x2, 10/05/2025, 31/05/2026, 21/06/2026x2, 28/06/2026

Wren ringed: 06/08/2023, 12/10/2025.

Sightings: Another quiet day bird-wise and the overcast conditions limited the number of insects on

the wing.