More Nestbox Ringing and the First Reed Warbler RAS visit

On Thurs 9th June, Jerry went round the boxes, to catch up with any pulli needing to be ringed. There were several failures in the shelterbelt boxes, and in one of them, some chick remains and what looked like a (Stoat) scat were found. Failures in other boxes seemed to be weather related, with small chicks succumbing, but older chicks (and eggs) not being adversely affected. In total, the following were ringed - Pied Flycatcher 1 + (1) adult & 4 pulli, Spotted Flycatcher 5 pulli, Redstart 9 pulli (2 broods). In the afternoon, he cut the main net lane in rb2, in preparation for our first Reed Warbler RAS visit. This came on Tues 14th, when despite showery weather (and a spell of heavier rain, requiring the nets to be furled for an hour), Jerry and Andy had a reasonable catch of 10 + (16). Species details were Wren 1 + (1), Blackbird (1), Dunnock (1), Robin 1, Redstart 2 + (1), Reed Warbler 5 + (9), Blackcap 1, Blue Tit (1), Treecreeper (1) and Bullfinch (1). A brood of Redstart were flitting about in the willows, and the adult male and two fledglings were caught. One of the juveniles had already been ringed a box by Ron - as there were only two well feathered chicks present, he thought that part of the brood had already fledged. Of the nine re-trapped Reed Warbler, eight contributed to our RAS, the other was ringed as a 3J last year (so couldn't be used for adult survival calculations). The last brood in the rb2 boxes was ringed, with just two of the six Blue Tit chicks surviving the recent wet weather.