Cataloguing the migrants

Hello

It's that time of the year when there are large numbers of juvenile birds active and with many of the warblers moving around eating what they can find before making their move south to southern Europe and potentially Africa. This means that August is potentially a busy month for ringers hoping to catalogue the birds before and during their migration for tracking and establishing survival rates.

Kenny and team completed some ringing at Linford Lakes on the outskirts of Milton Keynes today with a brief period yesterday afternoon too. A hefty total of 220 birds of twenty-two species of which 171 were newly-ringed were processed. Warblers dominated with fifty-four Chiffchaffs, twenty-two Willow Warblers, a juvenile Cetti's Warbler, five Common Whitethroats, two Sedge Warblers, fifteen Reed Warblers, ten Garden Warblers and thirty-six Blackcaps. Bigger birds included a Magpie, a juvenile Great Spotted Woodpecker and a Song Thrush. Hirundines included a welcome eight Swallows and a Sand Martin and finches included three Greenfinches and six Goldfinches and five Treecreepers were appreciated.

A Pied Flycatcher was reported on-site and other creatures encountered included Fox, Muntjac, Badger, Grass Snake and a Poplar Hawk-moth.

A smaller scale ringing session at Brixworth was less productive with just over sixty birds processed of seventeen species which included twenty-nine Chiffchaffs, several Common Whitethroats (including a re-trap from last August), a Sedge Warbler ringed last week at Pitsford Reservoir, a Woodpigeon first ringed in 2021 and singles of Pied Wagtail, a re-trap Grey Wagtail, a Garden Warbler and a Lesser Whitethroat. At least three Grey Wagtails remained on-site and several Yellow Wagtails visited briefly with Raven and Hobby overhead.

Continuing efforts of ringing at Stanford Reservoir today provided captures of two migrant Tree Pipits and yet another Common Redstart and a Kingfisher. Other birds there included another Kingfisher, the Black Tern from yesterday, a Hobby and two Shelducks. A Black Tern was at Eyebrook Reservoir today.

Birds in the Scaldwell Bay at Pitsford Reservoir today included the long-staying male Common Redstart, a Spotted Flycatcher, three Great White Egrets, four Ruff, a Red-crested Pochard and two Yellow-legged Gulls. Four Ruff, a Black-tailed Godwit, a Common Sandpiper and a Great White Egret were all at Irthlingborough Lakes and Meadows and an Osprey was seen over Summer Leys LNR this afternoon with the Cattle Egret reported there early morning.

Elsewhere and there were two Black Terns and a Cattle Egret at Clifford Hill Pits and a Green Sandpiper and a Common Sandpiper were at Hardingstone Lake this morning. A Wheatear was on farm buildings at Ecton and this morning a Marsh Harrier and a Wheatear were early birds in the Brampton Valley below Hanging Houghton with a Spotted Flycatcher in the village this afternoon.

A Marsh Harrier was a late evening sighting at Harrington Airfield.

Regards

Neil M

Sand Martin courtesy
of Kenny Cramer.

Swallow courtesy
of Kenny Cramer.

Treecreeper courtesy
of Kenny Cramer.

House Martin and Sand Martin
courtesy of Robin Gossage.