With a four day weekend ahead of me, it seemed like to perfect way to kick it off was a ringing session at The Haven. The end of August is now fast approaching and I will do a summary of where we are totals wise then, but as todays session was a pretty good one, I thought it warranted a short blog post. Barry had only been able to do one session so far this week because of the appalling weather, but yesterdays session had resulted in 10 new Grasshopper Warblers, so it was worth the effort.
The conditions looked ideal for another session this morning with a clear night, and a bright and wind less morning, and it was clear it was going to be good as our nets were dripping with birds first thing. As it happened things didn't end up as good numbers wise as we thought with under 180 birds were trapped, but we were treated to our first Common Redstart and Lesser Whitethroat of the year.
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| Juvenile Common Redstart |
The Common Redstart was a juvenile and there was no evidence of a dark throat or grey feathers in the crown, so was probably a female. Whilst I had the Lesser Whitethroat in the hand I thought I would check the wing formula to make sure it was just of the European sub-species.....well you never know!
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| Lesser Whitethroat |
The wing formula was spot on for European Lesser Whitethroat Sylvia curruca curruca with the second primary being shorter than the fifth but just longer than the sixth.
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| Wing of Lesser Whitethroat |
The bulk of our catch was made up of Reed and Sedge Warblers again but Blackcaps were't that far behind. We also caught another 18 Grasshopper Warblers, so 28 in two sessions, which is more like it. Good numbers of Whitethroats were also ringed, two of which were adults and one of those a control.
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| Adult Whitethroat |
The bright orange iris and extent of pure white in the tail feathers were dead give aways for the age, as were the retained adult secondaries in both birds.
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| Tail of adult Common Whitethroat |
The remainder of the catch was made up of Willow Warblers, notably four of which were adults, Chiffchaffs, Cetti's Warblers, Goldcrests, Garden Warblers, Long-tailed Tits, Dunnocks and a retrap Song Thrush.
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