From the top: A smart Nightingale, one of several now back on territory at our Suffolk ringing site. Image 2: A Chiffchaff nest in Pampas grass, Image 3: A Dunnock nest with bright blue eggs. Image 4: The speckled eggs and nest of a Blackbird. 

The first nest here is a Bullfinch nest with 5 speckled pale blue eggs. Image 2 is a Linnet nest, crammed with chicks! Image 3 & 4 below illustrate more Chaffinch nests, with both chicks and eggs.

Mid-May Update  . . . .

The first two photographs below show 2 Wicken Fen- Grey Heron

chicks, the third went missing at the late egg/early chick stage.

The last two images are of a Blackcap nest firstly with eggs and then 

with very young chicks. . . .both from our Suffolk ringing site .

Nest Finding - April

The first nests to be found in April and early May included the following: Photo 1 & 2: Grey Heron at Wicken Fen. Only 1 active nest this year. Photo 3 & 4: Several Chaffinch nests have been found. Photo 5: A Robin nest with chicks, found in the leaf litter. Photo 6: Another Chaffinch nest. . . . 

Long-tails get a head start . . . .

Long-tailed Tits are one of the earliest nest builders as it can take up to a month to fully build their intricate nests. They are also on of the easiest nests to locate as the pair are very vocal whilst nest building and can be easily tracked back to the nest site. Below are a couple of this years Long-tailed Tit nests Phil has found in Suffolk so far . . . .

Wicken Eggsitement . . . .14th March.

On the 14th March Phil gave a talk on 'nest finding' at Wicken Fen NNR alongside BTO Carl Barimore's talk on the Nest Record Scheme & Peter Bircham's discussion on bird surveying at Wicken. This was a successful event followed by an interesting search and methodology discussion 'out in the field' as can be seen in the images below. Phil has already found several Long-tailed Tit and Blackbird nests at Wicken which were still being built as of the 14th March. After the talks, Phil, Carl, Peter (the qualified tree climber!) and myself visited the Wicken Fen Heronry site to check how many pairs were nesting this year. We found 3 active nests and one with 2 big pale blue eggs! Last year, Phil monitored the breeding success of Herons at Wicken for the first time in Wicken history. After confirming breeding on the Fen, the outcome at the end of the long breeding season was  5 active nests and 10 fledged young. 3 nests were accessible, allowing us to catch and ring 6 of the chicks - another first for the Wicken Fen Ringing Group, taking the species ringed at the fen to 100!

Chiffchaff Sings in the Spring . . . .

On the 15th March we caught our first warbler of the year - a Chiffchaff  at our coastal Suffolk ringing site. Several others were heard singing the same day and there are now at least 6 present.

Waxwing Ringing Update - Suffolk. . . 

We have now ringed a total of 21 Waxwing during 2009 in Suffolk. On the 24th Feb we caught 12 from a flock of over 50 birds residing in Rendlesham. Of these, 2 were birds we had already ringed in January, 1 in Rendlesham and the other in Kesgrave. 

Winging Waxwings. . . .

To date, we have ringed 11 Waxwings during January 2009 in Suffolk. 7 of these were ringed in Rendlesham, the others later at Kesgrave (26th Jan). These birds were all 1st year birds. There are currently 17 birds remaining (biggest count 47) at Rendlesham and now over 50 birds at Kesgrave. The 2 colour ringed birds are still in Rendlesham amongst the flock of 17. In Kesgrave, we spotted one of our own ringed birds from Rendlesham amongst the sizable and growing flock there. For other Waxwing colour ringed sightings or observations or for more Waxwing project info please email: raymond@waxwing.fsnet.co.uk. amazingly one of these Rendlesham birds was colour ringed in Aberdeen during Winter 2008 and was spotted in Stockport, Cheshire, before arriving and spending the last month or so in Rendlesham, Suffolk.

Last of the Fieldfare? . . . .

We were up before dawn and back to our Suffolk Orchard site today for a new year session trying to catch the many Fieldfare which had been seen feasting on rotten apples before Xmas (see first visit below . . ). Unfortunately our excitement and hopes were dashed upon arrival as the apples had all but completely gone and the flocks of Fieldfare were nowhere to be seen! We thought we were going to have a lot more time to catch these great Thrushes at this site this Winter but will now have to wait until next Winter and utilize the opportunity properly then - Xmas just got in the way this time! However, we did manage to catch 1 token Fieldfare, so all the effort was not wasted . . . . .