Rimrose Review - taking a break (kinda)!

This is just a quick update with totals from the second half of this week, more than anything, and it has certainly been a frantic one! I've tried to fit in as many sessions in, on Rimrose, as possible before I head to Portugal (in a few hours) as well as finishing off the Barn Owls with Moxey.

Wednesday

I headed to Brook Vale, straight from school, and I was later joined by Moxey. I only bothered with the feeding station line and six nets in two lines in the reed bed.

Juvenile Sedge Warbler (Acrocephalus schoenobaenus)

Chiffchaff - 5
Wren - 1
Reed Warbler - 4 (2)
Sedge Warbler - 1
Blackcap - 1
Blue Tit - (1)

TOTAL: 12 (3)

Juvenile Chiffchaff (Phylloscopus collybita)

Thursday

We headed out to make the final visit to the last two farms on our circuit. The first box had been abandoned with four eggs (we had expected that this had happened on our initial visit) however the second farm had, so far, successful reared two young. I have now passed my How-to-handle-climbing-a-ladder-precariously-positioned-over-a-combined-harvester proficiency test.

Barn Owl (Tyto alba)

Friday

The early finish at school dangled the temptations of a few sneaky pints on the Wirral however, I learnt from last year that a 12pm start leads to a 2am 'why-am-I-still-out........in-Birkenhead?' and that would just be a waste. So I headed down to Fulwood to meet Steve and using the new line in the reeds plus an additional single and two nets by the canal, we had a decent return on our efforts.

Juvenile Whitethroat (Sylvia communis)

Whitethroat - 6
Blackcap - 5
Robin - 3
Dunnock - 3
Sedge Warbler - 1
Reed Warbler - 5 (2)
Reed Bunting - 1
Blackbird - 1
Magpie - 1

TOTAL: 26 (2)

The catch included a controlled Reed Warbler - V926066 - if this is one of yours, get in touch!

Blackcap taking advantage of the many ripe blackberries

Saturday

We returned to Fulwood for an early session, adding two nets by the canal to the nets we had set on Friday. We also managed to get a line of three double panels up, which we moved around until the public started to turn up, that managed to catch a decent number of Whitethroat.

Reed Bunting (Emberiza schoeninclus)

Wren - 2
Willow Warbler - 1
Whitethroat - 7 (2)
Robin - 3
Dunnock - 6 (1)
Blackcap - 4 (2)
Sedge Warbler - 2 (1)
Reed Warbler - 6 (1)
Reed Bunting - 3
Linnet - 1
Chaffinch - 1
Blackbird - 1

TOTAL: 37 (7)

Another controlled Reed Warbler was caught in the reeds - X061113 - if this is one of yours, get in touch!

Juvenile Willow Warbler (Phylloscopus trochilus)

Sunday

I met Steve at 3:30am this morning at Brook Vale, but when we arrived, it was clear that the wind was too strong and out of a potential twelve nets to go up, only two would have been sheltered enough to have been operable. Instead we did a bit of a site walk around so Steve knows what needs to be ready when I get back from Portugal - to get stuck into some more migrants.

This afternoon I head to Portugal with Tineke, we'll have three ringing sessions in the Minho region before heading to Coimbra to meet up with Moxey and do some ringing in the Mondego Valley before heading home, to Lagoa de Santo André to meet up with the family and complete my 26th year of migration monitoring!