CES 1 (2015)

Gareth completed the first CES visit of 2015 on 10 May. The weather conditions were ideal to start the session off, and this resulted in a reasonable catch of 25 new birds and 17 retraps, comprising 17 different species.

The retraps included two male willow warbler caught together with ring numbers EAC924 and EAC934. These birds were ringed in the same day last year, and it looks like they returned to the lake from their African wintering grounds in-toe.

The totals for new birds and (retraps) were:

Blaca 2 (2)

Garwa 2 (1)

Sedwa 2

Bulfi 3

Redst 2

Greti 1 (1)

Goldf 1

Wren 4 (4)

Chiff 3 (2)

Wilwa 1 (2)

Grefi 1

Sonth 2

Grswo 1 (1)

Cetwa (1)

Dunno (2)

Robin (1)

Bluti (1)

The great spotted woodpecker was good old CT93116, ringed at the lake in April 2006 making her more than 9 years old! She was last recaptured in March 2015, and before that in January 2014. The longevity record for this species is 11 years 1 month 15 days from Norwich in 2013; not so much older than our bird!

A nice addition to the catch were a breeding plumage male and female redstart (caught separately).

The male was aged 5 (hatched last year) on account of the brownish feather tips on the cap, white tipped feathers on the throat, and brownish fringing on the greater coverts (grey in age 6 birds). 

Male (top) and female (bottom) redstart