A couple of weeks ago our CES (constant effort site) visits to Martin Down ended. Constant effort site visits are when you go to the exact same place, same time, same nets etc over a period of time – we did ours 12 times over a few months.
Now that it has ended for the year, we are still going back but are able to use recordings of bird song to attract the birds!
On our CES visits, we may ring 50-60 birds but when we play the tapes this can triple! Here are the results from a CES visit and standard visit:
CES 
Standard
The first time we went, we caught 101 birds just on the first round of checking the nets! In total for this day we caught and ringed over 200 birds!
Around 105 of these were Blackcaps. Blackcaps respond to the recordings really well and they are also moving through at the moment, starting their migration.
Today we went again and caught and ringed even more! On the first round we did over 120 birds catching 228 in total!
We always catch the most on the first couple of rounds in the morning as we get all of the overnight roosting birds in the vegetation next to the nets! They are also more active in the morning and early hours of the day.
We have ringed some nice birds over the past couple of visits! Including Redstarts, a Grasshopper Warbler, Yellowhammers, a Stonechat, a Meadow Pipit and Reed Warblers!
Grasshopper warbler 
Yellowhammer 
Meadow pipit 
Stonechat
Here is the totals from the last visit!
6/9/20
Blackcap 148
Dunnock 7
Chiffchaff 12
Reed warbler 1
Redstart 4
Blackbird 3
Blue tit 3
Wren 1
Whitethroat 21
Robin 10
Meadow pipit 1
Lesser whitethroat 2
Bullfinch 4
Long-tailed tit 4
Goldfinch 1
Linnet 2
Willow warbler 2
Grasshopper warbler 1
=228 birds
Juvenile goldfinch 
Lesser whitethroat
Young Naturalist: Izzy Fry 
Izzy, these are just the most gorgeously uplifting photos. Seeing the beautiful creatures so close up is a real privilege. And they all look so entirely un-upset about the process – a tribute to the ringers! Thank you.
LikeLike
Thank you so much 😊
LikeLike
PS – you say ‘our’ CES – who are you?!
LikeLike
We are a small ringing group based in Hampshire volunteering for the BTO!
LikeLike
Hi Elizabeth! It’s my singing group, so my trainer and my fellow trainees!
LikeLike
Looks like some nice species! Do you get a lot of recaptures? Which species are the most common at your site? 😊
I have been ringing at a CES site on Amager close to Copenhagen. Here we catch mostly willow warblers, chiffchaff and lesser whitethroat. And our recapture rate is quite high!
LikeLike
We get a couple of recaptures but I would say 85% new ones! At this time of year Blackcaps are definitely the most common but also whitethroats and lots of goldfinches in the winter!
LikeLike