Reedbed Ringing

Today's ringing trip was a visit to a new site for me, Poolsbrook Marsh, an area of open water and reedbed  near Stavely in North East Derbyshire. It was the first visit of the year for the ringing group as well, the main aim of which was to open up the ringing lanes in time for the Reed, Grasshopper and Sedge Warblers' arrival in a few weeks time.

Poolsbrook Marsh

The first job of the day was to relocate the net lanes from last year and clear the reeds which had grown up there. After that we put up the nets before moving on to the scrubby areas of the site.

Net lane through the reeds

The ringing was quite slow with just 6 birds of 3 species caught (3 Bullfinches including a retrap, 2 Long-tailed Tits and 1 Blue Tit).

Other birds recorded today included three Year ticks; the first is a Schedule 1 breeding bird which I won't mention just in case anyone dodgy i.e. egg collectors, is reading! (2 singing), calling Water Rail and a fly-over Sand Martin, as well as several singing Chiffchaff, Chaffinch, Blackbird and Song Thrush. A Common Buzzard flew over and a pair of Gadwall were present on the water with "trilling" Little Grebe and a Mute Swan.

Year List:

106 : Schedule 1 breeding bird

107: Water Rail

108: Sand Martin