Team hard at it again this weekend.

 Several teams were out this weekend with varying results--but overall another 200+ new birds were ringed--almost all migrants.

I'll not go into detail of each site--except to say that Ben scored well yet again at his Witches Oak site--even after taking a dunking in the lake and spending all night in damp clothes ready for an early start on Saturday--way beyond expectation!

Some highlights were 121 Blackcap, 70 Chiffchaff ( see below), 10 Sedge Warbler,  11 Reed Warbler (both quite late), and our much anticipated first Meadow Pipit of the season ( see below)

A few of the birds we caught yet again showed some really interesting features--starting with a female Chaffinch:-

Female Chaffinches can be a bit tricky to age--but this one is an adult as can be sen by the smooth rounded tail feathers which it has just grown as replacements for those it had used for the last year or so.

Next up is a couple of pictures of the Meadow Pipit mentioned above:-

Meadow Pipits ( aka mipits)--are very common upland breeders across Europe and during late September millions fly generally south and west ; many spending winter in central Spain down to southern Portugal. They are very variable in colour--this is a pretty standard brown one--but some are grey, others olive green. They also have a moult pattern which is also very variable--but this bird showed a classic pattern showing it is a juvenile bird. This can be seen on the closed wing quite easily:-

I have drawn some white brackets on the wing showing the greater covert feathers. Those on the left are labelled Ad--because these are feathers which the bird has recently grown in to replace juvenile feathers and they are browny/buff tipped. On the right the feathers are white tipped and these are juvenile feathers which the bird has not yet moulted out and replaced with adult feathers. Would that they were all as easy as this one!!

Finally the ever vigilant Liz, spotted this Chiffchaff among the 59 we caught at Belvide....... First off it was bigger with a longer wing (63mm) than the others we caught, with a heavier bill and a drabber, grey brown plumage. The left bird is a 'standard', the right is the interesting one:-

The stripe above the eye and the ring around the eye have no yellow on as in the standard bird:-

And there is very little yellow on the underside. Most striking is the lack of any yellow in the axillary ( armpit) region, which on standard birds is bright lemon yellow:-

Now, Chiffchaffs are very widespread across Europe, and they have several subspecies/races. This may have been a bird which was just showing normal variation within a very large population--or it could have been a northern European race which generally show these kinds of characteristics. I guess the only way we will really know is if some ringer in Norway/Sweden or points east manages to retrap the bird next year--we can always hope.

The pensioners still have it !!

 We assembled this morning for our regular Wednesday session at Belvide, with a small but beautifully put together team, comprising of 4 OAPs and a young whipper snapper!

It became immediately obvious that there had been a decent movement of birds-building on Pete's observation from the previous day that there were lots of Blackcaps about.

We were busy right from the start, and by the time we packed away at 10 am, we had ringed 174 new birds--a brilliant total for our site.Noteworthy among these were; 68 Blackcaps ( Pete was right!); 59 Chiffchaff; 4 Sedge Warbler; 3 Willow Warbler; 2 Reed Warbler and Whitethroat, and 1 each of Goldcrest; Garden Warbler and the two star birds of the day;

This absolutely stunning Lesser Whitethroat and.....

this female Cetti's Warbler--the first for this year. During Saturday's bird race, they reported a possible Cetti's based on one call not too well heard so they didn't count it--I wonder if this was the bird?

We returned home well satisfied, for a cup of Complan and a lie down...........

Another big day for the group!!

 While I was away in Edinburgh visiting friends and Kev was still on Bardsey island the group members were busy racking up a fantastic number of newly ringed birds over the weekend. There are far too many to go into in detail so here are a few headlines:-

Pete ringed 28 in Chillington, the team ringed 62 at Belvide, Gareth ringed 38 at Dairy Farm, Sam 40 at Ashwoods, Ben an astounding 188 at Witches Oak--oh and Pat ringed 2 at his house--but they were Siskin.

In total that's an astonishing 358 new birds over one weekend--perhaps Kev and I should stay away more often.........

Most of the birds were migrants, with the most numerous being 140 Blackcap, 40 Chiffchaff and 24 Reed Warblers. So a massive WELL DONE !! and thanks from Pete and me for this superb effort.

Here's a few picture snippets from this total......

I know I've posted several pics of Kingfishers on here but they are stunning and this one gave Gareth particular pleasure at his site.

At Sam's session at Ashwoods Garden Centre, he ( as always) ringed loads of Blue Tits--but there's usually something interesting in the catch--like these two Goldfinches. The right one is an adult bird showing the red/white/black facial pattern. The bird on the left is a juvenile and will grow the adult head pattern over the coming weeks as it learns to look after itself.

This is a tail of a Reed Warbler, showing growth bars or fault bars. We are pretty sure that these differences in the appearance of parts of the tail are caused by different materials from food being used to grow the feathers. We sometimes call them fault bars because often one of the areas is weaker than the rest of the feather and the feather often breaks along these areas.

The Belvide team is out again in the morning--more news after that.....

September off to a flyer!!

 As you will see a bit later--it has; but before that just a quick mention of a lovely bird that Kev caught on his final August visit to the racecourse. Within this site there is a pool area, and one of the wagtail family in particular is attracted to water--the Grey Wagtail. These are stunning looking birds--especially males in Spring, and they have the longest 'waggiest' tail of the wagtail family.

This is a juvenile so not quite as colourful--but you can see that there is a lot of bright yellow towards the back end of the bird. This shows up really well in the field and leads to a lot of mis-identification. People sometimes report these as Yellow Wagtails--but the overall grey colour above signals that this is a Grey Wagtail.

Wednesday 1st September saw the team assemble at Belvide for a regular session in reasonably still, overcast weather. Catching was steady all session, and resulted in a super catch of 82 new birds--mainly migrants of a wide range of species. But this time I thought I'd feature a couple of resident breeding birds for you.

First, any ringing session with one of these birds is a success.....

Kingfishers never fail to please!! I thought I would catch this bird in a pose which really shows of the brilliant shimmering blue colour on the back and rump--often all you see as it darts away along a canal or river. The lower mandible on this bird showed just a hint of red which might make it a female--but there was so little red we thought it best to leave is as unsexed. What a stunner!!

In it's own way this next bird is stunning -if in a rather more subtle way.....

It's a Treecreeper, showing the cryptic plumage to help it hide against the bark of trees--and showing the long, decurved bill which it uses to poke into crevices looking for morsels of food--spiders, insects, invertebrate eggs and grubs etc. as it spirals its way up tree trunks.

This morning Ben was at his Witches Oak site with Simon and again they racked up a smashing total of 58 new birds--mainly warblers of which Blackcaps were the majority. However, Ben reports a good number of........

The rusty coloured wing feathers identify this as a Common Whitethroat. This is a juvenile in absolutely pristine, post fledging plumage--shortly to set off on it's way to western Africa.