Breeding birds

Hello

News came through today of the original ringing details of a Grey Wagtail bearing a ring and caught at Kelmarsh Hall in March this year. This bird was originally ringed as a nestling in Hallaton, Leicestershire in 2013. When we caught her this year she was aged as an adult female and she was with an unringed singing male. It is likely that this pair are in the process of breeding locally, not breeding far from where she was originally raised - just 18km in fact!

Checks of the nest-boxes at Pitsford Reservoir today by Dave Francis and Lynne Barnett produced some results which were not wholly unexpected but still not welcome. Not only are many of the broods of tit small, five broods have perished due to the wet and cold of the last week. Sadly this included our brood of Marsh Tits. I will be checking nest-boxes on the Kelmarsh Estate this week-end and I predict similar results for the earlier broods. However some early brood Great Tits have already flown the nest so it is not all doom and gloom!

Chris Payne in the south of the county has probably been faring better and his nesting exploits today included finding a Swallow nest with eggs, Blue Tits and Blackbirds with healthy broods and a Wren nest with five young.

Regards

Neil M

Blue Tit with young

A nestful of young Blackbirds which
will soon be vacating. Although not ideal
for any species, the cool and wet spring
to date will have provided an opportunity for
Blackbirds and Song Thrushes to produce some
early flush of success to the breeding season.

Wren nest

All images courtesy
of  Chris Payne.