After a couple of fairly quiet days, my friend Stu in Malvern dropped me a note wondering if migration was nearing an end. I sent back hoping for more migrants based on my notes from the previous few years.
A relatively small team met on Monday and as we opened the nets we could see and hear birds in the bushes so it was game face on. It was one of those days we hope for with a steady stream of new birds until we left at about 10.30. We ringed 223 new birds of which 139 were Blackcaps and 43 were Chiffchaffs. These two species--which typically migrate later than most warblers are now becoming the predominant species with only a hand-full of other warbler species.
The only other species of note were 4 new Robins and 5 new Dunnocks. We are pretty sure that we have ringed probably all the resident birds of these two species so it looks like these had somehow got caught up in a big migration push.
Yesterday morning I had a late and fairly modest catch of 5 Meadow Pipits, and the team met again this morning just as the sun was rising.
Although we weren't aware of birds in the bushes as on Monday, it soon became apparent that there had been another movement as birds quickly appeared in the nets. Again it was mainly Blackcaps and Chiffchaffs, but the latter almost eclipsed Blackcap for the first time ever at Belvide.
We ended the day with 122 new birds with 51 Blackcaps and 45 Chiffchaffs. We caught another 9 Meadow Pipits bring the Belvide total this year to 100. The most unexpected bird was this stunning Lesser Redpoll which appeared without the usual calling and again unusually for a highly gregarious species it was alone.
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