brewood ringers

Last night an intrepid band; Colin, Dan, Jane and James, spent the evening on the smelly and back-breaking task of monitoring the Reed Warbler nests in the 2 main reedbeds at Belvide. The Scott Hide reedbed held 9 nests--in 2 the chicks were almost fledged so we left them alone. In another they were too small having just hatched. One brood of 3 chicks was ringed and another we ringed 4 of the 5 chhicks--with one runt too small. One further nest had eggs, while another was probably waiting for eggs to be laid --probably a second brood as it was within a few feet of a nest from which the chicks appeared recently to have left. One further recently fledged nest was found.We reckon there is a minimum of 7 pairs in this reedbed.

In Gazebo Bay, we found fewer nests than expected--although we were running out of time and probably missed some near the water's edge. One 'fledged' nest was found; 3 'new' nests awaiting eggs, 2 nests with eggs and one with 4 chicks too small to ring, was the total. We reckon there are a minimum of 6 pairs here.

It looks like there is a minimum of 13 pairs of Reed Warblers breeding at Belvide this year. However, we feel this is probably a significant underestimate for a variety of reasons:- we may well have missed some nests in the survey area; we did not survey all reedbeds; in previous years we have found birds nesting in habitats not connected to the reedbed--for example in the bases of Glyceria grass tussocks and even in Willow bushes.Perhaps we will get a better idea when we compare nesting data with numbers of free-flying birds captured.