Ringers take on the elements - England
English ringers tell us about their CES experiences in 2012.
Chris, Cambridgeshire
It's been a nightmare even for me and I'm retired so how the poor folk who are restricted to weekend ringing are getting on, goodness only knows. I've got all 6 in so far although my site seems to be mirroring all the others with few juvs about - in fact few birds about as the season has unfolded. Still think there may be a late surge but was getting Reed Warbler with feathering brood patches last visit so think they've given up and are leaving. Will be interesting to see what the south coast sites pick up and whether adults are legging it early.
Giving it a whirl tomorrow (Thurs) despite an iffy forecast. Might just get lucky with the weather and love to get a big catch of juvs - for the birds' sake really but it may well be a year when anything that fledges successfully will be a bonus. Bit depressing though but as you say, really important we keep plugging away so we can report with more authority on what's happened.
Knew it was a mistake to buy that new BBQ. Still in the box!
Dave, Northamptonshire
So far I have managed all 6 visits. The numbers of birds, particularly juveniles, is well down this year. Looking at visit 4: the juveniles in the catch represented less than a third of the usual percent of that catch (10 year average) and even by visit six were still well down on the usual levels. Robins and Dunnocks seem to have produced reasonable numbers of Juvs but there are almost no juvenile tits about. The nest box scheme on site indicated a poor season for tits but I think the cold and wet June finished off most of what did fledge! The warblers seem to be late in producing any young but there is still time for them, unlike the tits which of course have finished and indeed are well into moult.
Stuart, Hertfordshire
It is 6/6 so far - I think I have been lucky!
Phil, Northumberland
I am doing my best but the weather has just been wrecking the site and at the times I can do sessions. Trying this weekend.
Pete, Lancashire
Not a bad session this morning in a miraculous weather window!
Steve, Dorset
I have to write to say that after a chat earlier today amongst ourselves we have now decided to give up for 2012 - not for ever though! The weather this year has been just dreadful since the start down here in Dorset. The site is right on the coast as you know. We have tried a couple of sessions but got winded or rained off before the session ended each time. Each week has become a relentless succession of persistent wind and rain. The reed bed is now armpit deep in water and quite unsafe to walk in and besides we could never reach any birds that we caught in the nets.
Frankly it is a washout here. A great shame as this would be our 17th year. We are not withdrawing though and hope 2013 will be better. It is VERY frustrating for us. I hope other sites are having more luck!!
Reg, West Sussex
I have managed to complete six visits on time but numbers are down. Juvs of resident species not bad Blue and Great Tits, Song Thrush, Robin, Wren, Treecreeper and Blackbird but as yet no Warblers though singing all round. Retraps the most interesting with returning Blackcap and Chiffchaffs and four year ago Blackbird and Treecreeper.
All is not lost even if we get only 15 birds a morning!
Robin, Hertfordshire
I did my 6th visit yesterday, so it's 6 out of 6 so far.
I had to close up the nets for an hour due to a shower, but after opening them again, I extended the visit for an hour to compensate, and I got a good total - 30 birds, including 13 Reed Warbler and 2 Kingfisher, 2 Garden Warbler and 1 Blackcap.
Garth, Worcestershire
Lucky with weather but not birds!
We had a lazy 5am CES start in very dull conditions, that eventually turned into patchy drizzle, which drove us indoors at the sewage works. It never got any worse so we did get session 7 in but only had 17 birds whereas last years similar session had over 50. Nothing exciting at all except a new female Whitethroat, five retraps of resident birds, a couple of juv Chiffchaffs, one of which tried to fool us with paler legs and only slight emargination on the 6th! The rest were mainly juvs of more residents.
We have been lucky though and managed every session so far, but not good numbers!
We don't normally see House Martins over the filter beds at this time of year but the bad spell had around 30 looking for insects, plus a few Swifts.
Will summer ever arrive?
Kevin, Dorset
So far on our new CES in West Hampshire we have managed to trap only 2 juv Reed Warbler up to CES-6. Last year during our "test" ringing we caught our first juv Reed Warbler at the end of May and finished with 32 by mid August.
Our site is approx. 50% dry-ish reedbed and the new growth is now above head height. Last year's reeds got to about chest height only which indicates how much more rain we've had this year.
Normally in mid July we will start to also ring in nearby coastal reed-beds where the target species is mostly migratory Sedge Warbler & Reed Warbler with some local breeding Reed Warbler also. I am thinking of delaying this by at least a week to allow more birds to arrive on the south coast.
Pete & Ginny, Buckinghamshire
Erected and furled the nets between torrential downpours on Sunday. Opened at 03:56 on Monday in unforecast erratic light drizzle that persisted for the first 2 hours. It didn't stop us ringing but things were rather miserable and uncomfortable. It finally all came good and we completed the session with 49 captures (30 juvs, 19 adults) in the 6 hour period - just pipping the lowest CES7 total of 2008. On the bright side, juvenile Whitethroats at last made their first appearence of the "summer" (a month later than some previous years). The total was swelled by a decent collection of finches (Gold, Green, Bull and Chaff). We arrived home in time to watch a rather chaotic passage of the Olympic Torch.
Lynne, Hertfordshire
The forecast for today was mist (ha!) with light rain possible from 10am. As we arrived it started to rain, but we doggedly carried on putting up nets, leaving them shut. By 5am they were all up, and we sat there in the rain, in our kagools, eating sandwiches and being eaten by mosquitoes. Still, as Chris said earlier, at least it wasn't cold. The rain stopped and the nets were finally opened at 6am.
There were heavy, wet-looking rain clouds going over all morning so it wasn't much fun. We just kept walking around the nets so we wouldn't be caught with too many birds if it did start. But it held off and after 6 hours we had 63 birds. The lack of juveniles was illustrated by the Long-tailed Tit flock that held 8 adults and only 8 juveniles. The flocks we caught this time last year, held 1 adult and 13 juvs and another held 3 adults and 14 juvs. Glad we managed to get it done though.
Jan, Berkshire
CES visit 2012.07, 7th Jul 2012, 660' standard net, only managed to do 3.25 hours before the heavy rain arrived. Capture: 39 is below the average of 58 for the period 1993-2012,
Juveniles: Blackcap-2, Blue Tit-2, Dunnock-1, Great Tit-3, Reed Warbler-2, Sedge Warbler-6, Wren-1
Recaptures included Reed Warblers from 2007 (an Icklesham birds captured every year since 2010) and 2004 ( 8yrs 38days since ringing as a 4 so at least 9 yrs old)
Numbers poor for the visit, usually one of our best particularly for juveniles, some of the juvenile Sedge Warbler captured had deep fault barring on tail feathers, not surprising given the weather.
Andrew, Kent
We've been lucky to be able to complete all our first 7 shadow sessions this year. Visit 7 yielded 54 birds with more juvs than adults. Most striking thing is that despite ringing 30 adult Whitethroats this year we have yet to ring a juv. This compares with Blackcaps ( 25 adults 13 juvs) and Chiffchaffs (9 adults 6 juvs). We've even had single juv Lesser Whitethroat & Garden Warbler & 3 juv Nightingales. Blackbirds seem to be doing OK with 18 adults & 16 juvs.
Totals are 177 adults / 72 juvs from the 7 sessions so far.
Roger, Dorset
Just a brief update after five visits - the fifth one being this Wednesday (20th) and the equivalent one last year on 21srt June. Numbers seem about equal, but Chiffchaffs appear to be in short supply this year.
It is not a main site for Sedge Warbler but last year I had one, but none this year.
On visit 5 last year I had several 3J Chiffchaff, Whitethroat, Reed Warbler, but none yet this year (although one Reed Warbler nest has fledged 4 young in the last week), so breeding is either poor or delayed a bit. Have had 3J Dunnock, Robin & Long-tailed Tit in the last two weeks.
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