CES 3 and nest box check

The wet and windy weather for the second half of May finally eased, and on Thursday 27th Andy was able to complete his CES visit. Catching was relatively slow, and with sun on the nets he ended with a catch of 11 + (15), which was a little below the recent totals for session 3. On the way to the site Andy spotted a well grown leveret on the lane, and with the species mix containing a few quality captures, it was a decent morning - Song Thrush 2, Blackbird 1 + (2), Dunnock (4), Wren (2), Chiffchaff 1, Blackcap (1), Garden Warbler 1 + (2) (plus nest with a first egg adjacent one of the net lanes), Goldcrest 1 (recent fledgling), Spotted Flycatcher 1, Long-tailed Tit 2 (recent fledglings), Blue Tit 1 + (1), Chaffinch (1), Bullfinch (2) and Reed Bunting 1.

Jerry arrived a bit later in the morning to check all of the "Lake" nest boxes, and managed to ring some of the early broods, and to catch some of the adults. In total he ringed Redstart - 5 pulli, Pied Flycatchyer - 4 adult/6 p, Blue Tit - 1 + (1 retrap) ad/21 p and Great Tit - (1 retrap) ad/4 p. the earlier poor weather had caused the failure of three Redstart nests (looking like at least one pair has a replacement nest), and with it the water level had risen to flood most of rb1 alder carr, and deepen the water in rb2 (wet feet again). During the afternoon, Andy checked the Cwm Sorgwm boxes where everything was a bit later (expected at the higher altitude). Just one brood of Great Tit - 4p, and caught 2 ad Pied Flycatcher.

The total for the day was 18 + (17) adult, and 40 pulli.