Here is the next installment from Gareth which describes the next few days which will live forever in their memories for the superb list of birds they ringed. Not many in number but complete quality due to the South Easterly which drifted migrants bound for Scandinavia to Bressay........
Gareth continues....
Then all my dreams came true when I went to do a net round and an ADULT MALE RED-BACKED SHRIKE was in the spring trap! Now I've heard many stories of shrikes slicing your hands, so I carefully took it out and returned, to process the information from this truly stunning bird. The beautiful, blue grey head with a black mask, powerful black bill, red back pale breast, black and white tail. truly a beautiful bird. We also caught and ringed an adult Starling.
What a magnificent bird the Red Backed Shrike is!!
Thursday 3rd June
Started with a new Spotted Flycatcher. I love these birds, as back home you just can't catch them as they like to feed high in the trees, so I knew it was going to be a good day as there seemed to be a few birds fllitting about. As the day went on we were catching birds, when Dad returns and says, "Well boys, we've caught something rare." When he took it out I was happpy to see it was a RED-FLANKED BLUETAIL! Wow! I was a bit down it wasn't an adult male, but then that's just being greedy.
The bird is similar to a Robin in build and size, with a blue tail and orange flanks. This individual was a first-summer female due to no blue on its shoulders or back and pointed tail feathers.
To put this into context, although the species' range is spreading through Scandinavia and sightings are increasing in Britain, there have only been 62 birds ringed here up to 2019. Less than ten birds have ever been recorded in Britain in spring, and this was the first sighting this year, the first June record for Shetland and the second for Bressay after one was seen nearby on
6th October 2020.
An almost mythical bird-especially in Spring
Shortly afterwards, an Acrocephalus (Reed type) warbler landed by me before going into cover. As the afternoon wore on, we caught and ringed 2 MARSH WARBLERS. Now these are difficult birds, but in the shade the differences become more apparent: pale claws and pale tips to the tertials.
The rare birds just kept coming--very pale claws a big clue to Marsh Warbler
Mr Phil Harris of the Shetland Ringing Group came down to liaise with us in ringing a brood of HOODED CROW young. There were four in total and I will be honest, they are truly ugly and smelly!
It's mum loves it.......
So a little summary of Thursday: we caught 3 Chiffchaff, 2 Marsh Warbler, 1 Spotted Fycatcher, 1 Lesser Redpoll, 1 Garden Warbler, 1 Lesser Whitethroat, 2 Blackbird and 4 Hooded Crow pulli. What a day.
Friday 4th June
After the previous day I was up at
2am full of spirit of what
today would bring, but the wind shifted slightly and we only caught one bird ALL day. The bird we caught was a beautiful Icterine Warbler. Man, in the net all I could see was yellow!
Icterine ( yellow) warbler
What an absolutely stunning run of good fortune. Back home we all rejoiced for the team--they have put in so much effort over recent years for sometimes quite modest returns--but they had really hit the jackpot this year
Final episode next......
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