Oxwich Marsh 9 June 2019: 23 species, a snake and a chaser

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A relatively calm morning with occasional short-lived showers and variable cloud cover. We put up a total of 880 feet of net in a mixture of habitats including reed bed, fen meadow and scrub habitats.

The catch was as follows:

Species Name
Ringed
Recapt
Total
Blackbird
2
2
Blackcap
2
1
3
Blue Tit
22
5
27
Cetti’s Warbler
2
2
Chaffinch
5
5
Chiffchaff
2
2
Dunnock
8
5
13
Goldfinch
29
1
30
Grasshopper Warbler
1
1
Great Spotted Woodpecker
4
4
8
Great Tit
24
10
34
Greenfinch
1
1
Jay
1
1
Reed Bunting
1
2
3
Reed Warbler
3
3
Robin
7
1
8
Sedge Warbler
10
10
Siskin
8
5
13
Song Thrush
1
1
Treecreeper
2
2
Whitethroat
1
1
Willow Warbler
2
2
Wren
1
2
3
Grand Total
120
55
175

Highlights were:

  • A second female grasshopper warbler with a brood patch for 2019. We now know that the two reeling males appear to have two attendant females. Both of these females have been present on the marsh since April, when they were initially ringed. It appears we can be confident there are two active nests.
  • Our first good day on goldfinches in a long time. Mostly juveniles, but also a between-year recapture and the odd unringed adult among the day total of 29.
  • Our first young great spotted woodpeckers of the year (4).
  • Two young treecreepers. It is typical for us to catch the odd young bird moving through the marsh at this time of year.
  • An interesting day on tits. Blue tits normally far outnumber great tits at this time of year, but maybe the latter have been more productive locally in 2019? The next month should answer the question.
  • Our first juvenile chiffchaff and blackcap of 2019, and more surprisingly, our first juvenile wren.

It was also nice to see a juvenile grass snake under one of the reptile mats we had placed a few weeks back, and to photograph a female four-spotted chaser that had been extracted from one of the nets and flew off after a minute or so of resting.

Thanks to Val Wilson, Jo Conway, Alex McCubbin, Bethan Dalton, Richard Dann and Miguel Lurgi for company and assistance. Particular thanks to Val and Richard for arriving at 04:30 to help with set up.
Photos are below

Owain Gabb
13/06/2019

Broad-bodied chaser (female) extracted from mist net and released
A young grass snake from under one of our reptile mats
Our second jay of 2019 (and at the site to date); a very angry individual! (Richard Dann)
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