A stunning morning in Staffordshire monitoring one of our most spectacular birds of prey. 🦅 Three healthy Hobby chicks, all looking in fantastic condition. A real privilege to monitor these incredible birds, with hopes of including them in a future colour-ringing project.

🌙🪶 Our #Nightjar project across Staffordshire continues! We were delighted to catch a free-flying juvenile during our latest survey. Since 2010, we’ve learnt so much about this fascinating, cryptic species. Long-term monitoring is helping us conserve these remarkable birds

Another frustrating breeding season, with several reports of cats killing our ringed Blackbirds. One breeding male was killed by a cat just two weeks after being ringed, likely leaving dependent chicks without a parent. The impact of free-roaming cats on wildlife is significant

A great first ringing session of the year at @SevernTrentLife Minworth! 43 birds of 17 species ringed, including Great Spotted Woodpecker, Reed & Sedge Warbler, Blackcap and more. Looking forward to the rest of the season! 🐦

A disappointing visit to our Common Tern rafts @SthStaffsWater Blithfield Res A site that usually produces around 50 chicks per raft had just a total of 10 chicks this year after a late start to breeding our poorest season here in the last 5 years. Here’s hoping for a better 2027

Continuing our #Nightjar theme this week… 🌙🐦 Fantastic to ring these Nightjar chicks, which will now be reared by their dedicated dad. Even better, finding the female on a new nest with the 1st egg of her 2nd brood already laid. An incredible breeding season in full swing!

Today we are at the @GlobalBirdfair at the @PulsarWild stand talking all things thermal Come and join us

Appeal for Identification We’re seeking to identify the individual pictured after the disturbance of a Sche 1 protected bird at an active nest. Their presence caused the adult birds to leave the nest potentially putting vulnerable chicks at risk during the current extreme heat.

🌙🪶 We’ve continued monitoring Nightjars across Staffordshire, and over the last two weeks we’ve ringed 10 birds, including several that were first ringed in previous years. Every recapture adds to our understanding of these elusive birds and helps inform their conservation.

🌙 Over the last couple of weeks we’ve continued our #Nightjar monitoring across Staffordshire using thermal imaging. This technology helps reduce disturbance while improving the accuracy of our surveys. Always fantastic to watch these incredible birds in flight

🪺 Another #Buzzard nest checked, with one healthy chick doing well. 🦅 This year’s monitoring suggests some raptor species have faced greater breeding challenges than others. That’s why longterm nest monitoring is so important, it helps us understand changes in breeding success

Fantastic working with @WildPackington , Solihull to establish baseline data and help tell the story of our conservation journey. Great to add these 5 young kestrels to our colour-ringing project too! 🦅 #Kestrel #Conservation #BirdRinging

⚠️ We’ve been made aware of people disturbing and photographing Schedule 1 birds with dependent young in Staffordshire. This is a criminal offence, even from a public footpath or right of way if your actions disturb the birds. Images & information has been passed to local police for investigation

🐦 A lovely ringing recovery! A #ReedBunting ringed at Soulton Hall on 24/09/2025 was recaught by Redditch RG on 20/06/2026 at the Heart of England Forest, Warwickshire. 📍 Distance travelled: 55 miles Every recovery adds to our understanding of bird movements and survival.

🦅 Hagley Falconry Centre to the rescue! A young male Peregrine Falcon was found beside a busy road and quickly recovered by volunteers. After expert care and assessment, he was released and successfully returned to the nest with his siblings. A fantastic outcome 💚

🐦 A sad end for a fantastic species. A Blackcap ringed at Cannock Chase, Staffordshire on 09/08/2025 was sadly found dead on 17/06/2026 at Gentleshaw Common, 9km from where it was originally ringed. important reminder of the valuable data that helps us better understand their lives and movements.

🦅 A great day checking 3 Buzzard nests and ringing 4 chicks. Broods appear smaller than usual this year, but it was fantastic to see these stunning raptors up close. We’re also looking at restarting wing-tagging to better understand Buzzard movements across forestry landscapes.

🐦 Why do we colour ring birds? This stunning photo by Tony Slater shows Common Tern A62 in flight. Ringed @SthStaffsWater Blithfield on 07/07/23, sighted for the first time since ringing at RSPB Middleton Lakes on 14/06/26. Every sighting helps us track these amazing birds

🦅 A terrible year for West Midlands Peregrines. Of the 6 Peregrine Falcon nests we monitor, most have failed following very late breeding this season. It’s the first time since 2012 we’ve seen such poor results across our sites, with others also reporting low brood numbers. 💚

Another day, another album cover. 🦅 This week we colour-ringed another Goshawk nest at a private Staffordshire site, bringing us to 5 nests for 2026. True ghosts of the forest. Fantastic to see plenty of grey squirrel prey in the nest too. #Goshawk #Raptors

Staffordshire Osprey Project! 🦅 We’ve been privileged to colour-ring Staffordshire Osprey chicks since the county’s first-ever breeding pair was discovered. One bird, 4R2, ringed as a chick in 2023, has now been found nesting at a private site in Leicester around 45 miles away

🌙 Nightjar season is here! With our expert nest finders and thermal drone, we’ve already located this incredible Nightjar nest with 2 eggs 🥚🥚 We can’t wait to see what this season brings, continuing learning more about these amazing birds marking our 16th year of the project

Another bird survey, another discarded balloon found in breeding bird habitat. What goes up always comes down somewhere, often in places wildlife depend on to survive. Surely there are better ways to celebrate or remember loved ones than releasing litter into the environment.

🦉 What a year for Barn Owls! A recent visit to @No1FarmerJake Worcestershire saw us ring 14 Barn Owl chicks from 4 nest boxes, a fantastic turnaround after last year’s poor season. Everything crossed for a successful fledging season and for these youngsters to thrive. 🤞🦉

This picture would make an incredible album cover! 🦅 Yesterday morning we colour-ringed a nest of young Northern Goshawk at a private site in Staffordshire. Truly stunning and deadly raptors. We’re privileged to monitor this species and look forward to future recoveries.

🦅 He’s back! After previously capturing a Kestrel visiting our Sand Martin Bank @stwater , Minworth on our @ZEISSBirding trail cams, we’ve recorded another hunting attempt. This time, he struck one of our plastic lures instead of a real bird 🐦

Great teamwork between us, Hagley Falconry Centre and Birmingham Airport to rescue, recover and return a young kestrel to its parents and siblings. 🦅 A fantastic result and a reminder that this is far from a one-off. Partnership working makes a real difference for wildlife

Fantastic update from our @stwater Minworth Sand Martin Bank 🐦 We’ve already ringed 22 chicks, with more nests still to check! After ringing 38 chicks in total last year, we’re on track to beat that record in 2026. Great to see all the hard work paying off! 🙌

Exciting times for our new Kestrel colour-ringing project, with another 6 birds ringed @handles4forks 🦅 Great to see a new pair taking up at the farm following the loss of the previous female. We’re looking forward to future sightings and learning more about their movements

🤯🐦 One of our ringed Redwing LEGS has been recovered in Finland! Ringed at Cannock Chase in Oct 2024 and recovered in Kouvola, Finland, in May 2026, 1,961 km (1,219 miles) away. 🇬🇧➡️🇫🇮 Every recovery helps reveal the incredible journeys these birds make. #BirdRinging