On two of our general ringing sessions this year we caught swallows. The first, on 15th August, we caught two swallows very early in the morning in the nets in the reeds behind the Discovery Hut. On the 23rd August we caught a further 5, again early in the morning behind the Discovery Hut. At this point I started to think that maybe there was a roost in the reed bed and these were birds leaving the roost.
We tested the theory on 31st August. 6 nets were set around the reed bed. We started ringing early afternoon and caught a few of the classic species for this areas, including sedge, reed and Cetti's warblers as well as some other birds, including a linnet. The first swallows started to appear about 7pm and we caught a couple on the penultimate net round. Then the roost started, with sightings of pied wagtails, swallows, sand martins and starlings all circling the reed bed. Many birds joined the roost and even while extracting our first roosting birds many more were circling overhead. The final total for the day included 105 swallows, 6 sand martins and 2 pied wagtails. It was an impressive sight to see all the birds going in to roost.
Having had success on 31/08 we tried again the next week on 06/09 when we again started early afternoon and included a kingfisher as our first bird of the day. The roost was not as big and there was some concern we might not catch many birds, but then a wave of birds came in to roost. Starlings were again present, though we did not catch any. The final total included 86 swallows and 5 sand martins.
13/09 was similarly successful, with a good total of 18 birds caught before the roost including the usual warblers and a good number of chiffchaffs. The final roosting total came from two waves of birds. One early wave gave about half the catch, but was followed about half an hour later by a second wave. The total for the day included 99 swallows and 13 sand martins. None of the roosting birds caught in any of the three sessions were either controls of birds from outside the area or retraps from previous roost catches.
We made another attempt on 22/09, but disappointingly for us there was no roost present. We did manage a catch of 7 birds before the roost, including a sedge warbler ringed elsewhere. Hopefully details will follow shortly! In addition we caught 3 Cetti's warblers, 2 reed buntings and a chiffchaff.
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| A mist net full of Swallows |
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| Processing the catch |
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| Adult Swallow tail streamers, the length is used to sex the bird |
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| Adult Swallow head pattern |
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| More processing... |
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| Birds kept overnight in bags & released at first light |
