We need a chat......

After a series of really good catches we were a little disappointed with today's modest catch of 38 new birds at Belvide. However, the quality was still very good again--with migrant warblers making up 34 of the total. Of these there were the usual suspects-but we also caught a Goldcrest--Europe's smallest breeding bird.

Just a few centimetres long and weighing about 5 or 6 grams it's amazing how far these birds can migrate. Although this one will have been hatched here, during October we get millions flying to us from norther Europe. This bird is a recently fledged juvenile--and a closer look at the top of it's head reveals it to be ........

.......a male! You can just make out the small patch of orange crown feathers just starting to grow. More feathers will grow, and the bird uses this orange flash to advertise itself during the breeding season by folding back the yellow feathers and erecting the orange ones. Females only have yellow on the crown.

Although not a warbler, the most exciting bird of the day was nevertheless a migrant and a member of a group of very colourful birds collectively called 'chats'. This is a Whinchat

It's only the second of this species that we've ringed at Belvide--and this one is a juvenile with a rather bland, but subtely beautiful appearance.

From this angle you can see the mottled effect on the back and the almost black tail--with very pointed juvenile feathers. These birds are rather difficult to sex at this young age so we left the record as an un-sexed individual. What a beauty the males are in the Spring breeding plumage--check them out!

Last but not least we received a report of one of our recently ringed juvenile Sedge Warblers which had been controlled by other ringers.

AFT 3066 was a juvenile 'Sedgie' ringed at Belvide on 26th July this year; and was retrapped on 1st August 192 km away in Dorset.

So this is interesting on at least two fronts even though in pure distance it's not that impressive. First the bird was clearly on it's southward migration to Africa--but it clearly must have started before the end of July illustrating just how early some species and individuals set off so soon after fledging.

Perhaps even more intriguing is the SHORTNESS of its first flight. Sedge Warblers are known for their quite prodigious flights using up big fat stores in order to do so. Clearly something wasn't quite right with this bird. We will never know, but maybe it didn't store enough fat; or maybe it became unwell; or maybe it got to the south coast and for some reason decided it needed a rest or more fat before it was ready to take on the English Channel. There's always something intriguing about ringing birds......

Kevin and Gareth are out this afternoon and evening and Ben et al are out much of tomorrow in general ringing and hoping to ring at a Swallow roost-- news of them in due course.