CES 11, and two roost sessions.

The forecast for the upcoming week didn't look particularly good, but Friday 14th August, appeared to have promise. As it turned out, the overnight rain passed through a couple of hours quicker than forecast, to clear the lake by 6. Rachel and Jerry then had a dry/clam/overcast six hours to complete the CES. The catch was well below the average for this visit, with 18 + (4), but a decent variety. Just as they had finished taking down the nets, a heavy downpour arrived without too much warning. The species mix was Robin 1, Dunnock (1), Song Thrush 1 + (1), Blackbird 1 + (1), Willow Warbler 2, Chiffchaff 6, Blackcap 2, Garden Warbler 1, Blue Tit 2, Nuthatch 1 and Bullfinch 1 + (1).

The evening's forecast was much better than previous days, so Peter and Alan J decided to have another roost attempt. The cooler conditions meant they were hopeful that the previous "swimming disruption" wouldn't be likely. There was another decent gathering of approx 500 birds, and after an "initial pass" some 45 were in the net. A decent total for the limited number of ringers, so the tapes were switched off, and Andy was called (in case he wanted to help with the ringing). With no moon rising, it got dark quickly, so most of the birds were taken back to the hut for ringing, and were roosted overnight before release by Andy early the next morning. The total for the evening was Sand Martin 42, Swallow 7 and Reed Warbler 1. We've had very little success with roosts in recent years (usually disrupted by Hobby), so this was our best catch since 2004, with Sand Martin higher than our year totals for 15 of the last 20 years.

With another good forecast on Saturday, Peter, Alan J, Jeremy and Jerry came prepared for a bigger catch. Soon after setting up an Osprey flew over, and five Little Egret went to roost in the Cranog trees - thought to be good omens. The Sand Martin numbers were building up and behaving as they did previous evening, before a Hobby made a couple of passes and scattered the flock. On its third pass it flew into the top panel, but got out again before Jerry had barely started his rush to reach it. Most of the Martin's had now decided to roost in a different parts of the reedbed, and the evening ended with just 23 Sand Martin and 6 Swallow. The weather forecasts suggest that another "ringing window" wouldn't be available until mid week.