Cetti’s Warblers and reed cutting.

Female Cetti’s Warbler, South Milton Ley, 20th October 2023

I have been looking at some of my ringing data from SML.

Back in August last year, I published a link to the latest 2022-26 Management Plan for SML. I have made the full document available online at (PDF) South Milton Ley Nature Reserve, Five-year Report and Management Plan 2022-26 (researchgate.net). One of the principal changes was Graham Burton’s, then ex RSPB, now Devon Birds’ Chairman, decision to stop the winter reed cuts and to allow natural succession to take place without intervention. Graham also considered Cetti’s Warbler to be “a higher conservation priority than Reed warblers in UK terms. 2000 breeding pairs of Cetti’s, always vulnerable to a bad winter, compared to 130,000 pairs of reed warbler”.

These data are a little out of date but, in my personal opinion, reflect the RSPB’s obsession with pouring money into the conservation of species on the edge of their natural range, such as Dartford Warbler, Cirl Bunting, Capercaillie and Ptarmigan etc. A cursory glance at the global distribution map for Cetti’s Warbler shows Britain to be at the extreme northwestern limit of their range, which extends across the western palearctic and into central asia.

Cetti’s Warbler distribution map

Perhaps monies would be better spent protecting those species we should have in abundance, such as Tree Sparrow, Corn Bunting, Turtle Dove and Woodlark. That’s a debate for a wider forum than this blog though!

Getting back to Cetti’s Warbler. Of 154 Cetti’s Warblers processed at SML since 2015 females (80.3%) significantly outnumber males (15.5%) unknown (4.2%). A literature search reveals a number of recent papers indicating that, whilst reedbeds are suboptimal habitat, they are principally used by young females. These findings have important implications for the significance of reedbed habitat to this species. Its sustained use by young females makes Cetti’s Warbler vulnerable to the loss of reedbed, or its degradation due to growth of shrubby vegetation or the lack of suitable management. Consequently, Graham B’s wish to increase Cetti’s numbers at SML whilst stopping reed cutting and allowing natural succession to take place would seem, at best, to be contradictory.

21st October 2023

Female Firecrest – South Milton Ley 20th October 2023

I took a gamble on a forecast gap in the wind and heavy rain today and, for once, it paid off. Whilst parts of the UK were underwater as a result of storm Babet, I ended up ringing in a t-shirt and keeping the sun out of my eyes, whilst the wet weather gear remained firmly in the boot of the car.

Bird-wise there was nothing special either in the nets or on passage. Things have changed though. Blackcaps and Meadow Pipits seem to have all passed through being replaced by the first Firecrests and Reed Bunting of the season. Blackbirds and Song Thrushes were much in evidence around the reserve, perhaps attracted by the heaviest Hawthorn berry crop I can remember seeing.

In total there 45 birds of 12 species were trapped: 4 Blackbird, 3 Blue Tit, 1 Cetti’s, 16 Chiffchaff, 5 Dunnock, 2 Firecrest, 1 Goldcrest, 2 Long-tailed Tit, 1 Reed Bunting,  2 Robin, 1 Song Thrush, 7 Wren.

Biodiversity Update 2023

Moth trap at the western end of South Milton Ley © David Pakes

I have been ploughing through multiple emails and over 1,300 entries on i-Record to update South Milton Ley’s confirmed species lists. A bit of a labour of love but a task where I am very aware that my own contribution has been largely administrative rather than practical. 59 new insect species have been added and a few removed where their identities were not confirmed. Consequently, the arthropod list has increased from 907 species in 2022, when the current management plan was written, up to the current total of 1061 species! I have lost track of the number of moth species added by “The Flying Trappers”. There were just 6 species listed in 2015, 145 in 2017 and the moth list now stands at a much more respectable 257 species.

Thanks are due to all those individuals and groups who have given their time over the last few years to explore and catalogue the biodiversity of the reserve. This was a task which, along with many of Devon Bird’s other reserves, was long overdue and which has identified a variety of non-avian species of conservation concern, highlighting the value of the habitat beyond the bird population. I was going to list the multitude of contributors here but quickly realised that it would be a long list and there was a significant risk of individuals being omitted in error. Thanks to all concerned! You know who you are!

The revised species lists now stand as follows:

56 diatoms, 208 vascular plants, 1061 arthropods, 215 birds and 44 other vertebrate species. Spreadsheets are available on request. I am also keen to hear from anyone with an interest in mosses, liverworts, lichens, fungi or any other groups not currently listed who might be prepared to have a look around the reserve sometime.

Saturday 30th September 2023

Autumnal berries and birds today. With only nettles still growing in the net rides at this time of year, clearing them is much easier and less time consuming than slashing through reeds and hemlock water dropwort in the height of summer. A Meadow Pipit tape lure proved productive with 20 birds piling into a net on the margin of the reed bed.

59 new birds were processed: 6 Blackcap, 3 Blue Tit, 2 Bulfinch, 1 Cetti’s Warbler, 23 Chiffchaff including 1 UK control, 2 Goldcrest, 1 Greenfinch, 20 Meadow Pipit and 1 Wren.

Chiffchaff ring – PDE361

23rd September 2023

The 1^st ringing session for a month after a particularly uneventful week at Portland Bird Observatory! Nothing special. 44 new birds: 1 Blackbird, 9 Blackcap, 17 Chiffchaff, 1 Dunnock, 4 Goldcrest, 3 Long-tailed Tit, 2 Meadow Pipit, 2 Robin, 1 Sedge Warbler and 4 Wren.

June to August 2023 – a summary

I’m going to try to get events up to date now with a quick summary of ringing visits since 10^th June.

14^th June 2023: A brief visit curtailed by bad weather saw just 7 new birds processed: 1 Blackcap, 1 Dunnock, 1 Reed Warbler, 2 Robin, 2 Sedge Warbler,

18^th July 2023. 30 new birds: 4 Blackbird, 1 Blue Tit, 6 Chiffchaff, 1 Dunnock, 12 Reed Warbler, 2 Robin, 4 Wren.

7^th August 2023. 38 new birds: 4 Blackcap, 1 Blue Tit, 7 Chiffchaff, 1 Garden Warbler, 3 Great Tit, 1 Long-tailed Tit, 5 Reed Warbler, 3 Robin, 2 Sedge Warbler, 2 Whitethroat, 3 Willow Warbler and 6 Wren.

16^th August 2023. One of the worst August days I can remember in terms of both numbers and variety. 96 metres of mist net in a 16 hectare reedbed for 5 hours in the middle of August produced just one Acro today. Is this the impact of a cold and very wet July? No second broods and everything departed early? 28 new birds: 6 Blackcap, 2 Blue Tit, 1 Chaffinch, 5 Chiffchaff, 2 Dunnock, 1 Great Tit, 3 Long-tailed Tit, 1 Reed Warbler, 1 Tree Pipit, 1 Whitethroat, 3 Willow Warbler and 2 Wren.

23^rd August 2023. 5 Blackcap, 1 Chiffchaff, 1 Great Tit, 1 Robin, 7 Sedge Warbler, 1 Willow Warbler and 3 Wren.

A tribute to Tony John

It’s been quite some time since I last updated the blog, with a lack of motivation being the primary factor. However, personal and health issues have been dominating my thought processes recently and I am currently waiting for a consultant’s report and the results of a CT scan. All being well, a simple operation should rectify things.

The death of my former trainer, Tony John, also hit me quite hard. Tony and I had a long history going back to the mid 1970’s and we continued to communicate right up until the middle of July this year. The news of his death, whilst not entirely unexpected, filled me with sadness. Tony was one of the most affable and knowledgeable ecologists I have had the pleasure of meeting. Able and willing to pass on information on a diverse range of subjects in a quiet, unassuming way. I first met him in the mid 1970’s, when I started working at the Institute for Marine Environmental Research, based in Plymouth. I had just left school and was about to embark on a career as a marine microbiologist and Tony was a key member of the Continuous Plankton Recorder team, which had recently transferred to Plymouth. Tony gently guided me through the complexities of identifying planktonic marine diatoms and dinoflagellates.

Inevitably this led to the discovery of a common interest in birds. Tony was already an experienced and qualified ringer. I had dabbled with ringing in the early 70’s but decided to concentrate on birdwatching. Nevertheless, in August 1983 we travelled together for a week at Portland Bird Observatory with Tony ringing and me birding. After seven days, which produced Wryneck, Melodious Warbler and three Ortolan Buntings, the highlight was a twitch to the Axe Estuary on our way home, where we saw our first ever Little Egrets in the UK. How things have changed since then.

A few years later, in October 1990, we travelled again. This time for a week at Bardsey Bird Observatory off the coast of west Wales. This was to be our last trip together as I left what had become the Plymouth Marine Laboratory in November 1998 whilst Tony continued in the Sir Alistair Hardy Foundation for Ocean Science. It seems that we were destined to meet up again. I started training to ring in earnest in 2011 and bumped into Tony at a Southwest Ringers Conference. This led to multiple visits to Burrator in subsequent summers to assist with his Pied Flycatcher nest box scheme there. Tony conducted an independent assessment of my abilities, which, together with my trainer’s report, enabled me to progress from a trainee ringer to my BTO C-permit in June 2014.

Our paths could have separated at this point, apart from occasional Pied Flycatcher sessions, as I was now able to operate with little supervision and had taken on responsibility for the ringing at South Milton Ley. However, events conspired to bring us back together. My ringing trainer foolishly got himself suspended for a misdemeanour in February 2017 and I was forced to search for a replacement. Tony stepped into the breach and took me under his wing. Very much a “hands off” trainer, he was nevertheless, always there to offer support and advice when required. He was fully supportive, when, at the suggestion of the warden at Portland Bird Observatory, I decided to apply for my A-permit.

I knew by this point that Tony had some potentially serious medical issues but did not know their nature and extent or the impact of the treatment required. Despite this, Tony completed the paperwork necessary for my A-permit application, which was not a trivial task, and, in June 2022, the permit was awarded. Even this did not signal a parting of the ways though, as controls of birds I had ringed whilst Tony was my trainer continued to crop up. In June this year he bailed me out of a computing disaster by sending an electronic copy of all my ringing data and the last ringing recovery report I received from him was a recently as mid-July. Always a gentleman, Tony will be missed by many. Ironically, I was unable to attend the funeral as I spent that week with my wife ringing at Portland Bird Observatory.