early August - "Acro" taping, CES 10 and a roost

Sunday 1st August was the start of our Acro taping season, and Jerry was in rb2. It was a wet start, with the early rain only starting to ease as Jerry arrived. As the forecast was for (low risk) of showers during the morning, he opted to only put two nets up, and in the short three hour session the catch was 41 + (3) - made up of Reed Warbler 37 + (3), and Sedge Warbler 4.

On Tuesday 3rd, Jerry was back for another session, but it was misty and cool (only 8C at 06.00), and the catching was very slow to start, picking up when the sun dried out the reeds. He ended with a respectable 50 + (4), with a bit more variety than the previous visit.  About mid morning, as he was leaving the ringing table for another net round, a bout of anxious "barking" started close by - a Muntjack had been surprised and wasn't very happy. Later it could be heard moving through the reeds, but fortunately he was able to deter it from reaching the nets, and it went off southwards (from the direction it had come). Upon hearing this report from Jerry, Peter and Alan J played Muntjack calls while on holiday and it perfectly matched the mystery noise they had heard in the dark on a couple of occasions at the Jetty while doing Roost visits over the last few weeks. Not something Peter and Alan J would likely have ever considered for the culprit! Andy was ringing at the jetty for another decent catch of 45 + (3), where he had a few more birds first thing, before (like in rb2) it went quiet and then picking up again. This was another impressive day total for us, the details were - Wren (1), Blackbird 2, Redstart 1, Willow Warbler 3, Chiffchaff 8, Whitethroat 1, Reed Warbler 56 + (6), Sedge Warbler 22, and Reed Bunting 2. The day total for ringed Reed Warbler was just short of our record - 59 set way back on 15 July 2006 (rb2 and the garden)

On Wednesday 4th, Alan L was doing CES 10, but another misty start made everything wet until the sun burnt it off, which then made catching only really possible in the shaded parts of the nets. He ended on 17 + (4), made up of Blackbird 1 + (1), Chiffchaff 9, Garden Warbler 1, Blackcap 4 + (1), Nuthatch 1 + (1), Bullfinch 1, and Greenfinch (1). This was our 3rd lowest total (of the last 10 years) for this visit, but the lack of birds allowed him time to catch up with some chain saw work. One of the Chiffchaff became our 1000th bird ringed for the year, earlier than last year (14th August), a bit later than 2019 (17th July), but same date as in 2018.

With some wet weather forecast (starting on Thursday), Jeremy opted to keep the roost sessions "ticking over" on Wednesday evening, and with no sign of the Hobby to disturb the roost, he had a decent catch of 40 + (2). With some 200 Sand Martin and 50 Swallow flying around, and an earlier descent into the reeds (before 21.30) than previously, he thinks there was potential to have caught more. A bonus was a control Sand Martin (Spanish ringed) included in the catch- details to follow in due course. Jeremy "slept" in his car overnight in order to get an early start for the morning session. It was a bit breezy, but during the relatively short time before the rain was due, he had caught 17 + (2) including a Sand Martin leaving the roost and managed to take the nets down just before the rain arrived. The species mix for his overnight effort was Sand Martin 24 + (1), Swallow 12, Robin 1, Chiffchaff 2, Willow Warbler 1, Reed Warbler 10 + (3), Sedge Warbler 6, and Reed Bunting 1.