It was a pleasant enough morning at this interesting site and the nets were well sheltered from the cool northerly breeze. On our arrival, good numbers of Willow Warblers could be heard in the short rotation willow coppice, though this is some distance from the ringing site which turned out to be rather quiet. The flocks of finches and buntings were not in evidence, although some had been reported the previous day and we had to be happy with just a dozen birds, including Willow Warbler, Whitethroat, a Reed Bunting and 2 Yellowhammer. Pete Willow Warbler (A. Turnbull ..read more

We were hoping to get a good first visit in to Holme Pierrepont as the forecast was calm and overcast. When we went to clear the rides back in February we could only get to 3 of the net positions because of the flooding. After seeing how dry the CES rides were at Attenborough last week, I assumed all would be well at Holme Pierrepont, but how wrong was that assumption! We could only get 6 of the usual 9 nets up, but 4 of them only with care as the site was still very flooded. Bright sun and quite a breeze did not help either and we caught just 20 birds. No Reed Warblers were heard singing and ..read more

We made another visit to the Delta at Attenborough on 31/03/24 putting up another long line of 13 nets. A better catch today helped, no doubt, by no mishaps with breaking poles! 52 birds captured, a mixture of the usual woodland species plus 7 Chiffchaffs and the first 2 Blackcaps of the year. We missed a session at Attenborough on 07/04/24 because of the high winds but returned on 14/04/24. Another long line of nets erected and more warblers singing on site, but the catch was only modest with 28 birds caught. Willow Warblers were heard singing, a scarce bird on the Delta, so I was surprised w ..read more

I've set up a remote-fired whoosh net in the garden and managed to catch a couple of adult Rooks. They are extremely wary, and usually appear very early in the morning, seemingly attracted by food and the soft ground around the septic tank. I think these were males on size, presumably the females are incubating. They are very smart birds close up! Jim ..read more

Today’s visit to the farmland feeding site in Elton was very successful with 71 birds processed in total, including 50 Yellowhammers, one of the target species. The other birds included resident birds such as Blackbird, Dunnock, Reed Bunting and Wren, as well as several Blackcaps, Chiffchaffs and our first Willow Warbler of the year. The flock of Brambling we saw on the previous visit had moved on, but it was nice to hear some summer migrants singing in the trees. Unfortunately, 2 of the 3 chaffinches we caught had 'scaly legs' caused by Fringilla papillomavirus. They were released unringed, b ..read more

It's that time of year again when we join forces with NNRG to ring Raven chicks at their undisclosed site. This year the birds had chosen a new nest site which proved a bit difficult to locate. However, last week it was eventually found and four chicks were seen.  On 10 April, Kev B, Holly, Jake and I joined Adrian and Tara from North Notts RG, the site manager and the Access Techniques team to ring the chicks. The Access Techniques team are very proficient and Andy soon reappeared with the chicks. I was surprised to find that there were 5 large, healthy chicks, a first for this site as t ..read more

Jim, Alex and I met Ben at the farm in Elton on a cold but bright morning, hoping that the day would bring plenty of birds coming to the feeding site, especially as the supplementary feeding elsewhere on the farm had stopped for the season. Ben had been feeding the site regularly and had seen plenty of birds coming and going, including some Brambling. We set the nets, with some affected by a stronger than expected breeze, but nonetheless we managed a decent first round, which dropped off subsequently, with a steady trickle of birds for the remainder of the morning. There were indeed plenty of ..read more

It's not that long ago that Cetti's Warbler was unknown from our part of the world and it was retricted to England's southernmost counties, but in the last 25 years or so, it has spread to almost every region of England and Wales. Our ringing group's first capture was at Holme Pierrepont (HPP) in 2009. Since then, at that site, we have ringed 86 new Cetti's and had 40 subsequent encounters. In 2011, we caught our first at Attenborough Nature Reserve (ANR). Here we have since ringed 15 new birds and had 12 subsequent encounters. ANR is approximately 10km southwest of HPP, but crucial ..read more

A very modest catch today in windy and sunny conditions, though it did take longer than usual to put up the nets because just as we reached the last one, the first pole in the line snapped in half, collapsing the whole line. It took a while to get the nets back up and free of twigs and alder cones... Still, we processed a total of 18 birds. The highlight was catching 4 Treecreepers together, which meant we could compare the primary coverts and we were surprised to see that they were all different!  We tried tape lures for Nuthatch, Goldcrest and Siskin, but those were unsuccessful. We cau ..read more

This was to be the final visit of the season to the winter feeding site at Broomfield campus. Nets were wind affected from the start, but a little light drizzle early on soon cleared. We ended up with a reasonable catch of 27 birds, including 15 retraps. Blue Tits made up half the catch, plus a few Great, Coal and Long-tailed Tits and 5 Robins. Only 2 Chaffinch were caught. The bird of the day was the first Nuthatch recorded for the group at this site.  Thanks to Caitin for keeping the feeders topped up! Sue Nuthatch (K. Hemsley)   ..read more