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Gloucestershire Naturalists' Society |
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Gloucestershire Naturalists' Society |
Sunday 4th July 2004
Men’s final day and although showers were forecast for Wimbledon, our forecast was good for the morning. There was no wind when we arrived and little dew on the grass, so the walk across the fields was only difficult not wet! It must be nearly time for the hay crop to be taken off. It’s like pushing your way through a jungle getting to the ringing site. Very little song to hear, but plenty of calling from the hedgerows. The sun rose on time, and for a few minutes the sky was ablaze, a cheering sight, then the layer of cloud that was to be with us all morning covered the orb, giving near perfect conditions for catching.
We knew we were in for a large catch when the first round produced 39 birds. From then on we were busy all morning with every net catching well. The Sedge warblers have done well, and this was the weekend when many were making their first flights around the natal site. We ended up catching 61 Sedge warblers, 47 of which were new, and of these 42 were juveniles. The five new adults caught bring the total of adult birds caught on site up to 48, an all time record. Whitethroats also figured largely in our catch (34), as did Reed Buntings (23). 16 species of bird were handled today and the final total of birds caught was 153 of which 20 were retraps and the rest new.
Catching a lot of birds is fine, and keeps you busy, but it does rather reduce the time for other activities. We didn’t mention the football once, nor the fortunes of Gloucester Rugby club. Virtually no bird watching was done, and no bug hunting. Plans to make a collection of the various flowering grasses were ignored, as we busied ourselves, making net rounds, extracting the birds, and then processing them.
Time flies when you are enjoying yourself, and today was no exception. We soon got to ten ‘O’ clock, our survey period end.
Saturday 10th July 2004
04.30 and there we were again. An extra visit today and the weather just perfect. Virtually no breeze and a layer of cloud. The grass is still uncut, and is drying out nicely. Too nicely, I can’t think there is much food value in this hay, it looks very tough and dry.
Once again the evidence was there of a very successful breeding season. Last week’s record catch lasted only the week, with today’s creating yet another record. 173 birds caught of 20 species. 136 new birds ringed and 37 re-traps handled. Again Sedge warblers led the way with 54 birds of which 44 were new. 4 new adults increased the total making our record even higher.
More adult birds are in post breeding moult now, showing that for them the breeding season is at an end. This confirms the evidence of our ears, as there is very little song now. Just the occasional burst of Reed warbler and Reed Bunting.
The top part of the ringing site has got a lot of purple loosestrife growing, giving a purple haze as you look across the marsh. The willow bushes that have grown in this area over the last few years appear to have a rust type infection in the leaves, as they are going brown. It is in this area that our family of Stonechats have taken up residence. Two young are still avoiding the nets, and the adults are conspicuous by their absence. Are they looking after a second brood or have they become secretive as they go into post breeding moult?
Back at the cars large areas of nettles are being parasitised by Greater Dodder. It looks as though an angler has discarded great tangles of pink and yellow fishing line in amongst the vegetation. It’s only when you look closer that you see the clusters of cream coloured flowers at intervals along the stems.
Sunday 18th July 2004
Sunrise is getting later and so is our meeting time. 04.40 today and a beautiful morning. It’s still a struggle to get across the fields. When is the hay crop going to be cut? A brief snatch of Grasshopper warbler song this morning was heard as the nets were being erected.
Still plenty of birds about, with the third consecutive 100+ catch. This time 152, with 95 new and 47 retraps. Sedge warblers failed to top the list today, being beaten into third place by Whitethroats and Reed Buntings, 48, 31 and 25 respectively. This follows the pattern of previous years with Sedge warblers falling off quicker than the other main species. It is round now that the Sedge warblers move off in search of reed beds to feed on aphids to lay down fat reserves ready for their journeys to sub Saharan Africa. In South coast reed beds birds, that had weighed around ten grams at the breeding grounds, feed like mad and put on up to 50% of their body weight in fat. The adults leave us a little sooner than the juveniles, most of our regulars have gone now, but we are still catching the occasional new adult. Even the juveniles don’t hang around long here; we seldom catch young Sedge warblers more than once. Most of the re-traps of recent weeks have been Whitethroats.
At last we are seeing a few butterflies. Green veined whites have been quite numerous, with a couple of small coppers, and a few small tortoiseshells, Meadow browns, and Gatekeepers. There haven’t been many damsel flies and we have only seen two common darter dragonflies this year. Whatever it is that has been so good for the birds, doesn’t seem to have been so good for the butterflies.
Sunday 25th July 2004
Almost a lie in today, we didn’t meet until 04.50. The grass still hasn’t been cut, but at least there wasn’t a heavy dew, so the struggle across the fields didn’t soak us. A quiet and overcast morning, with no sign of the rising sun. The first two net lanes have a lot of long grass in them which make putting the nets up slightly more difficult than the others, but the nets were soon up and catching begun.
We run a sweep on the number of birds we are going to catch, and as I hold the previous years’ records I have an advantage, although we can all see and hear what is about when we are putting up the nets. The first round gives a good indication of what is to come, and 18 birds were well below recent catches, so it looked as though we were past the peak for this year. This was proved correct, as the final total was 87 birds, of which 58 were new and 29 re-traps.
When we got to the top end of the site the adult Stonechats were on view again with a new brood of youngsters, and at last we caught one of them. A stubby tailed juvenile, which hadn’t long been out of the nest. With birds that are very young when we catch them, we take them back to the area of the net where they were caught. This happens mostly with young Sedge warblers, which are the main breeding bird of the site, but also occasionally with Reed Buntings.
The Sedge warbler catch today was only 10. Six new and four re-traps. It looks as though the bulk of our birds have now set out to the feeding grounds prior to migration. I will be surprised if we catch another adult this year, and only a few more juveniles are likely to be caught in August. Whitethroats were top of the list with 21 new and 9 re-traps. It will be interesting to see hoe their numbers go, as they appear to have been around earlier and in big numbers this year; usually we have our largest numbers in August.
During the third round, on our walk across the far boundary of the reserve, in the silence left by no singing birds, the call of a Quail was heard. The bird continued to call at intervals for the rest of the morning. The sound was coming from the fields between Stank lane and us. Towards the end of the session, several Swallows were seen, the first for a few weeks. Also as the sun broke through, lots of butterflies appeared, several whites, some small coppers, and a few others. Hopefully the butterflies can have a better second half of the summer. On our walk back to the cars a Yellowhammer called from the fields beyond Dirty lane. With three visits of the CES season left to go, we have already handled 806 birds, and ringed 560. This is proving to be a record year for Ashleworth, and reflects the successful breeding season. All we need now is for the grass to be cut to make the last three visits easy walking!
An introduction to the Ashleworth ringing programme can be found here.
The first of Mervyn's reports covering the first visit on 18th April 2004 can be found here.
The report covering the visit on 2nd May 2004 can be found here.
The report covering the visit on 9th May 2004 can be found here.
The report covering the visit on 23rd May 2004 can be found here.
The report covering the visit on 4th June 2004 can be found here.
The report covering the visit on 13th June 2004 can be found here.
The report covering the visit on 26th June 2004 can be found here.
The report covering the visits during July 2004 can be found here.
The report covering the visits on 5th August 2004 can be found here.
The report covering the visits on 15th August 2004 can be found here.