CES update

Sunday, May 16th 2021

Since 1993, bird ringers at Foxglove have taken part in the Constant Effort Sites Scheme (CES). The Scheme provides valuable trend information on abundance of adults and juveniles, productivity and also adult survival rates for 24 species of common songbird. This year so far two visits have taken place, the second of which was today. During the first session (two weeks ago) 137 birds were caught and 18 of them were Bullfinches. In the early days of the project, Blue Tits were the most common species ringed however today there were 39 Bullfinches and only 9 Blue Tits!

A pleasant surprise this morning was not 1 but 5 Sedge Warblers! Their 'raspy' song can be heard in several places around the reserve. The Sedge Warbler is a medium-sized warbler of marshes, reedbeds and wetlands. It can be spotted singing amongst reeds and willows. The male sings random phrases into its repertoire, never singing the same song twice; he attracts more mates the more phrases his song has. These beautiful birds are summer visitors to the UK where they breed in wetland habitats from April onwards.

Thank you to the bird ringers who set their alarms for the 5am start this morning, the data gathered during these sessions is extremely valuable to the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) and the conservation of songbirds.

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