Female Cirl Bunting
A beautiful spring day with a few birds as a bonus. Marsh Harrier on site and 29 birds ringed including the first Willow and Sedge Warblers of the year plus 7 each of Chiffchaff and Blackcap with backup of two Cetti’s Warblers and a pair of Cirl Buntings. #birdringing #ukbirding
The main reedbed net ride at South Milton Ley
A sunny but frosty start to the day. Nets up in the reedbed for the 1st time this year. A brisk start tailed off with just 2 birds trapped after 09:15. 18 in total: 1 Blackcap, 3 Blue Tit, 2 Cetti’s, 1 Chaffinch, 4 Chiffs, 1 Dunnock, 1 Lotti, 1 Robin, 1 Song Thrush, 3 Wren. #birdringing #ukbirding
Chiffchaff and Chironomid midges, South Milton Ley. Photo: R. Moore
Now pollen coated birds are returning, it’s time to stop the survey of Chiffs wintering near the sewage works. Endless wet weather reduced the catch to just 71 birds. However, capture/recapture models indicate a population of c. 272 birds. Just a little lower than 2024/25. #birdringing #ukbirding
Water Vole tracks in the mud.
After 50 consecutive wet days, a dry forecast was too good to miss. It was a slog with saturated ground and few birds. 5 hrs/7 nets yielded 9: 2 Blackbird, 1 Blue Tit. 1 Cetti’s Warbler, 1 Chiffchaff, 1 Firecrest, 1 Robin and 2 Wren. As a bonus, water vole tracks were found. #birdringing #ukbirding
Yesterday was the first decent ringing day for over a month. It was cold and the reserve was sodden with the reedbed ride inaccessible. Most insectivores seem to have pushed off. Just 19 birds trapped: 1 Blackbird, 4 Chiffchaff, 2 Firecrest, 2 Goldcrest, 2 Great Tit, 5 Long-tailed Tit and 3 Wren.
I won't be using my main net ride for a while. We've had a little bit of rain in Devon!
Storm Goretti felled 3 trees in the ringing area and the wettest ever recorded December meant Marsh Ride was underwater. The remaining 7 nets yielded just 22 birds before rain stopped play. 2 Blackbird, 1 Blue Tit, 1 Bullfinch, 8 Chiffchaff, 1 Dunnock, 4 Firecrest, 4 Goldcrest, and 1 Redwing.
Frost reedbed
I wouldn’t normally ring with temperatures around 0°C but yesterday was probably the only opportunity this week. 6 nets, all close to the ringing table, were used, yielding 30 birds in 3.5hrs, dominated by Crests and Chiffchaffs. Temperatures are up to 9°C today but with rain so correct decision!
A cool, grey and dreary day yesterday with the nets full of leaves! Still caught 56 birds, dominated by Chiffs and Crests and the 1st Redwing of the autumn. Some very fat Chiffchaffs heading south - up to 9.5g. I had to check the calibration on my scales! #birdringing #ukbirding
Net rides in yellow. Ringing table in red.
Yesterday. Steady passage of migrants. 90 birds, 13 species. Quite enough for a lone ringer! 4 Blackcap, 4 Blue Tit, 1 Cetti’s Warbler, 1 Chaffinch, 27 Chiffchaff, 4 Firecrest, 16 Goldcrest, 2 Great Tit, 1 Grey Wagtail, 22 Meadow Pipit, 2 Robin, 2 Song Thrush, 4 Wren. #birdringing #ukbirding
South Milton Ley Nature Reserve, Devon, our first ever Firecrest control: Ringed here on the 28-Sep-2024, and controlled almost a year later on 24-Sep-2025 at Coppet Hill, Dorset, UK. 361 days since ringed, 92km movement. #birdringing #ukbirding
Male Firecrest at South Milton Ley
Tuesday 23rd. A beautiful autumnal day at SML with a steady trickle of migrants. 56 ringed, dominated by Chiffchaffs and Meadow Pipits with a supporting cast of Blackcaps, a late Reed Warbler and the first Goldcrest and Firecrest of the autumn. #birdringing #ukbirding
Yesterday was the first ringing opportunity for two weeks. Some hirundine and pipit passage overhead but only 12 migrants caught out of 35 birds. The remainder were resident species and re-traps. A close-up of a meadow pipit hind claw is attached for those interested! #birdringing #ukbirding
Candolleomyces candolleanus, Pale Brittlestem. Photo: Juan Carlos Poveda Molero
Friday 5th Sept. A welcome break in the weather saw 45 birds processed, half being passage warblers. No visible passage of pipits or hirundines. The other half were mostly local Tits and Robins. Bonus: another new fungus for the reserve list Candolleomyces candolleanus. #birdringing #ukbirding
Tail of a young Chiffchaff with a terminal fault line.
The warblers breeding within SML seem to have had their most successful season for years, with only brief periods of wet weather to interrupt the food supply, so it was a surprise to catch a Chiffchaff with a fault across the end of its tail. Who knows where it hatched! #birdringing #ukbirding
A view of the back and rump of a female Kingfisher.
This female Kingfisher was the star bird yesterday, on what was the quietest day of the autumn so far. Just 43 birds processed. A bit of a slog in the sultry heat! #birdringing #ukbirding
Male Cirl Bunting - August 2025
Another 71 birds were processed yesterday, including this male Cirl Bunting. The incessant high-pitched, squealing calls of juvenile Water Rails has formed the background sound to all my recent visits to South Milton Ley. #birdringing #ukbirding
I live near to Plymouth Argyle so only a brief spell at SML today so I could park at home! Caught 71 birds: 2 Blackbird, 1 Blue Tit, 1 Bullfinch, 1 Cetti’s, 1 Garden, 12 Reed, 6 Sedge and 23 Willow W. plus 1 Chaffinch, 14 Chiffs, 1 Dunnock, 3 Great Tit, 1 Robin, and 4 Wren. #birdringing #ukbirding
Moth trap beside the reedbed
Webb's Wainscott. Photo © Phil Barden
The moth boys were busy again at SML on July 25th, adding another 10 species to the list. Best of the bunch – Webb’s Wainscott, a notable B species, which is spreading along the coasts of southern England. It favours fens, marshes, and brackish ditches so not unexpected at SML. #ukmoths #DevonMoths
Garden Warbler 31st July 2025
Birds had deserted the reedbed at SML prior to yesterday’s heavy showers. Nothing caught there all day. The perimeter compensated, yielding 79 birds of 12 species, including 34 Chiffchaffs, 27 Willow Warblers and the first Garden Warbler of the autumn. #birdringing #ukbirding
Flaking scales on a passerine's leg - photo from North American Bird Bander
I learnt something this week. I ringed a Great Tit with flaking scales on its tarsii. Initially I feared disease. I hadn’t realised that the "podotheca", the scaly skin covering birds’ feet and legs, has a periodic shedding and replacement process. Not a lot about it in the literature. #birdringing
Willow net ride in 2023
Willow net ride during the works
Willow net ride on 24th July 2025
After 16 months disruption and 4 months late, SW Water have completed their works at South Milton STW. Multiple trees and 20m of bramble and scrub were destroyed in the process but fencing and damaged ground has been reinstated. It was great to finally get the net ride back. #birdringing #ukbirding
Busiest day's ringing this year! I closed the most distant net to catch up with the processing. 94 birds trapped: 1 Blackbird, 5 Blackcap, 6 Blue Tit, 46 Chiffchaff, 2 Dunnock, 1 Goldfinch, 2 Great Tit, 9 Reed Warbler, 3 Robin, 3 Sedge Warbler, 8 Willow Warbler and 8 Wren. #birdringing #ukbirding
Male Dark Bush Cricket on the ringing table
A scorching day yesterday. 49 birds trapped including 43 juveniles. Further evidence of a good breeding season. 27 warblers were caught and strangely, a party of 8 Chaffinches together in one of the reedbed nets. Finally, a pic of a Dark Bush Cricket on the ringing table. #birdringing #ukbirding
The ringing was a dull as the weather today with just 22 birds caught in 90m of nets over a six-hour session. The tedium of trying to monitor the breeding populations at SML was lifted briefly by this fine male Cirl Bunting. #birdringing #ukbirding
I've just received details of a Chiffchaff, ringed at South Milton Ley in February 2023 and re-trapped at Paper Court Marsh, Surrey on 25 May this year. Out of all the controls of SML wintering Chiffs this is the first record of a bird, which looks to be a UK breeder. #birdringing #ukbirding
Marsh Ride bridge October 2024
New Marsh Ride Bridge April 2025
Too windy for nets today, so I decided to replace the rotten bridge to Marsh Ride, unsafe since last October. 3 hours of effort with Nick Townsend, from Devon Birds and we are rather pleased with the result! A quick coat of non-toxic wood preservative will finish the job. #birdringing #ukbirding
Literature suggests that the vast majority of pollen (91.8%) is from eucalyptus spp. - not common in Cornwall or the Scillies! No records of pollen/nectar consumption in the UK but I cannot rule it out.
SWW have just extended their access agreement across neighbouring farmland to the beginning of June 2025.
Chiffchaff and Chironomid midges South Milton Sewage Works. Photo by Richard Moore
With the first, returning, summer Chiffchaff of the year yesterday, it is time to knock their winter survey on the head. 158 individuals were trapped and capture/recapture models suggest that the population visiting the sewage works was 284 birds +/- 80. #birdringing #ukbirding