Bearded Tits and Reed Warblers Mid Term Report

Our two RAS studies at Leighton Moss RSPB Reserve have been difficult this year because of the foul weather and high water levels during July cutting our normal ringing effort by half. However the Bearded Tit population

appears to have recovered somewhat from last years low point of 12 pairs. To date we have caught or identified by their colour rings ten adult females and eight adult males. We would expect to pick up several more in our autumn ringing and especially on the grit trays from mid September on. So a conservative estimate is 15+ pairs. However the high water levels appear to have flooded out some nests for to date we have only caught 16 free flying young compared to 22 during the same period last year, although of course the reduced ringing effort should be taken into account. Reed Warblers are the commonest breeding bird at Leighton Moss, to date we have caught 189 adults. This compares to an average catch of 177 over the past 15 years. Of these 77 are retraps from previous years including a nine year old bird first ringed in 2003 and two five year old birds. We have also had two birds from elsewhere in Britain and a French ringed bird, we are awaiting full details. To date we have ringed 340 young birds although there is over a month to go yet it does look as though they too have suffered during July's poor weather for last year we ringed 821 young. Our catches of adult birds has declined over the last week. They appear to be preparing to leave for one we caught today weighed 14.2 grams at least 3 grams heavier than usual and it had a fat score of 4 John