We ring lots of chicks (pulli) in May & June. Birds like Blue Tits seem to be doing well with several boxes containg quite well developed young. One nest we visited this week contained 11 very healthy chicks also a Robin with 6 chicks all doing very well, so despite the weather most are coping just fine.
Wigston sewage farm continues to be a major staging post for passage hirundines (swallows & martins) and swifts. We ringed over 30 birds in just an hour or so tonight in just one 12 metre mist net. As well as passage birds we caught some apparently local birds including a Swift and several House Martins with very well developed brood patches. Brood patches are the areas of bare skin where birds deliberately lose feathers around their bellies and develop extensive surface blood vessels. The blood keeps these areas 'super warm' ideal for incubating eggs. Birds with good brood patches are often females and are either on eggs/young or very near to that stage.
Whilst doing one of our Tree Pipit surveys we caught this amazing creature .... a Cuckoo. Often (or sadly in recent times not often) heard occassionaly seen but rarely the detail visible in these images.
I have been away on holiday so apologies for limited updates so far in June. I'm pleased to report that Andy & Nigel have been busy including visits to the Watermead 'islands' to check and ring Common Terns. Last year the main island had become overgrown with willow and low shrubby vegetation. Because of the unsuitable habitat there were only about 6 adult birds in 2002. Common Terns are formidable adversaries in numbers but with so few adults but many places for predators to shelter they were unable to prevent corvids from predating both eggs and young. The Leicestershire CC rangers at Watermead carried out extensive management work over the winter to address this (see the image below). When we visited last week there were between 26-28 adults flying over the island and we estimate at least 10 nests still with eggs. We ringed 6 chicks along with one Oystercatcher. On behalf of the group and the Watermead terns we would like to thank 'the rangers' Dale, Jenny and Richard for their hard work which has resulted in this incredible turn around also Leicester City Council for allowing us access to the island.
19 new birds and 10 retraps caught at Watermead today including welcome juveniles (5 Reed Warblers, 1 Chiffcaff, a Blue Tit and a Kingfisher).
Several vists have been made since the last update mainly to ring Common Terns & Sand Martins. Today marked the final trip of the year by boat to ring Common Terns at Watermead, 2 more were ringed along with 3 Mute Swans. In the evening 16 more Sand Martins ringed at Dishley pool.
The team reassembled tonight after summer holidays to various points of the compass. At Watermead we ringed several new Reed Warblers including a very young bird evidently only just fledged out of the nest!! The picture to the right shows an adult ringed originally in 2002 along with 2 photos to show the way its feathers have worn. A bit like finger nails, as you work with them they wear down and break, so too tail & wing feathers get worn & damaged as birds busy themselves around the reed bed raising broods of young. These will be replaced (by moult) in a few weeks time when this Reed Warbler migrates somewhere south of the Sahara!
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