Strange morning

This morning's session was quite strange. On one hand the weather was perfect and after a couple of decent day of weather we were expecting a bit of a bumper catch. As it turned out the catch was a little disappointing with only 51 new birds ringed. However, on the other hand 48 of these birds were migrants and for the first time this season Sedge Warblers outnumbered Reed Warblers. Sedgies tend to set off on their migration a tad earlier than Reeds and at this time of year we often see a rise in their numbers--as we did today.

Just one close up picture today which MAY be of use in the field especially if you have a good telescope view of a Reed Warbler:-

You can see that the iris of this bird is distinctly lighter that the black of the pupil. This is a feature of adult Reed Warblers--a juvenile has almost no contrast with the iris and pupil being almost all black.

My second image has nothing to do with our ringing session--other than we had a few Swifts flying overhead before we finished the session. Thanks to Ron for sending me some pictures of these birds. Here is one I have cropped to show it in close up:-

The work I've done hasn't done a lot for the quality of the picture--but you CAN seethe strange lump below the bird's beak. This is the extended throat pouch which is obviously full of insects which this bird has been catching. It's also pretty strong evidence that this bird is breeding nearby because the adults fill these pouches before returning to the nest to use the contents to feed their growing chicks.