Here's the gloomy bitWhat are they saying about is the gloomy news.
The reed warblers seemed to be doing better than the previous year with more pairs. There seemed to be a lot of young around from the first broods. But then the floods came and the second broods would have been washed out. However there seemed to be a lot of singing birds and territories were re-occupied afterwards and young were seen from these later broods.
However sedge warblers arrived late and in much smaller numbers than normal. Territories occupied in 2011 were for the most part devoid of birds or occupied by reed warblers.
The main reason I think for the dearth of sedge warblers, was the very poor weather across Europe during their peak migration period. There is no doubt that many of our birds had perished or not migrated fully. This makes it even more devastating as the typical life span is 2 years, which means they only get 2 chances of breeding. Strangely though, this year more birds appeared after the flooding and several broods of young were seen scattered all over the reserve.
I will post the actual totals of pairs asap.
B John
"Some of the worst results were for wetland birds reed warbler (down 34 per cent) and reed bunting (down 49 per cent), which have seen their nests swept away by floods. Garden birds such as the blue tit (down 31 per cent), great tit (down 42 per cent) and the wren (down 17 per cent) also suffered......The worst hit was the Cetti’s warbler, with a drop of 66 per cent. "
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