Swallows and speckles

Colin, Derek and I arrived at Kessingland sewage works this morning to the promise of light rain. Despite this it was warm and once the flies had finally woken they were kept low bringing a good number of hirundines down to net height. We immediately responded by erecting nets around the filter beds with the hope of making a catch before the rapidly thinning clouds parted to reveal the full warmth of the sun and take the flies and the birds well out of reach.

Our efforts were rewarded with martins and swallows hitting nets as we worked on erecting the next ones. Upon taking our haul back to the ringing hut we discovered to our interest that four of the swallows were fledged this year.

Sand Martin                        House Martin

3J swallow with pale forehead/throat and short streamers

An additional catch from the 'hirundine nets' was a smart retrap green woodpecker. The male originally caught as a juvenile (3), in September 2007 had a 'brood patch' far more extensive than that commonly seen on male passerine species which share incubation and brooding.

Adult male Green Woodpecker (6M)

By this time our usual four nets had been erected in the scrub and were providing a good supply of juv. tits, robins (one individual moulting out juvenile body plumage - 3JP), and dunnocks - we must have ringed several broods at the site now. 

   juv. wren (3J)                          robin redbreast? (3JP)

Our coup de triomphe was to erect a single 60' net in a ride situated between a reed bed and a small clump of low sallow. Within fifteen minutes of leaving the net I arrived back to find a pleasing catch of at least fifteen birds. Reed and sedge warblers from the reed bed, a family of great tits from the sallow and  juv. white throats from all directions. Along with a couple of blackbirds this goes to show how favourable the union between two habitats can be for a wide range of species. Indeed, when extracting birds from the lower shelves the grass was crawling with invertebrates ranging from small flies and beetles to larger centipedes. Sadly the reed bed is quite dry which is another reason that so many species are moving through it.

juv. whitethroat (3J), showing characteristically dark iris.

In total 53 new birds were caught, with 18 retraps and 1 control. A really good morning and thanks must go again to Colin Carter for allowing me to help out at his site.

Green Woodpecker (1)

Sand Martin - 3

Swallow - 7

House Martin - 6

Pied Wagtail - 1 

Wren - 1

Dunnock - 5, (1)

Robin - 4, (2)

Blackbird - 2, (3)

Song Thrush - 1

Cetti's Warbler - (1)

Sedge Warbler - 1, (2), 1 control - L127888

Reed Warbler - 3, (4)

Lesser Whitethroat - 1

Whitethroat - 8, (1)

Blackcap - 2

Blue Tit - 1

Great Tit - 6, (1)

Chaffinch - (1)

Reed Bunting - (1)