Varied success

 I mentioned that other team members were out and about and that I would report on their efforts--so here goes.

Yesterday, Gareth was at his farm site where his recent catches have been good and improving. Unfortunately yesterday turned out to be just one of those days, and he only managed to ring 9 new birds for a lot of effort. However,there were still some good quality with yet another yellowhammer, and a few Sedge and Reed warblers. Here is one of the adult Sedge warblers he ringed--

As in previous pictures of adult birds at this time of year, the feathers are looking rather worn with thin white edges rather than broad buff ones in juveniles.

Sam has been very busy with a visit to Ashwoods nursery invited by conservation officer Phil. They had a very busy morning yesterday and ringed 79 new birds-of which 44 were Blue and 11 were Great Tits. However there were some other species in the mix which were slightly more interesting in different ways.

First here is a picture of a Wren--

There are other clues but the overall chocolate brown hue of this bird suggests it's a juvenile. One of the important aspects of catching Wrens is that because they are susceptible to cold winters, the numbers we catch during the summer gives an insight into the numbers that survived and their breeding success. I'll report more on this from our Belvide data later in the year.

He also caught a couple of Nuthatch. These are relatively common birds but we tend not to catch very many so getting two together was useful in that they showed very well the difference between male and female plumage:-

I'll admit this isn't a particularly flattering picture of two Nuthatch--but it does show the much more russet coloured undertail ( and flanks- which you can't see) of the male bird which is the lower one of the two.

Not content with that, Sam also did an early catch at Belvide this morning. It was quite a strong north westerly air flow so he was not able to open many nets--only those sheltered from the wind. However, he managed a creditable 26 new birds-all but 2 of which were migrant warblers. He's having a rest tomorrow morning but will be out again on Wednesday! News of that and any other activity as soon as possible.