Back in the Groove

 Although it's always exciting to go abroad and sample new ringing experiences--it's always great to be back on home turf. And the hectic pace we have set continues with over 500 new birds ringed in the first 19 days of September! The numbers include a good catch by Gareth at his Dairy Farm, including 2 Lesser Whitethroat, 17 Blackcap and a Cetti's warbler.

The team has been active at Belvide with a couple of 100+ catches by the team even when stretched in numbers of personnel available-thanks to Kev, Glynn and Roy!! As usual there were a couple of slightly different species to increase interest and provide our trainees with new challenges,

New trainee Roy was very pleased and surprised to be able to get up close and personal with his first Kingfisher. This is a male as can be seen by the black lower mandible of the beak, which would have had  patch of red if it had been a female.

A less glamourous but very important new species for him was this Spotted Flycatcher...

As you can see--fairly nondescript--the light tips to some wing feathers show it's a juvenile--species. However, we always appreciate these because they have diminished in numbers by a massive percentage over recent years--at least some are successful thank goodness!!

Blackcaps, as expected continue to dominate in the catch as big numbers gather to gorge themselves on the abundant supply of Elderberry and Bramble fruits. They use these to build up their fat reserves in preparation for their southerly migration.

Paul has been active and had been concentrating on hirundines ( swallows and martins)--in two ways.

First he and Pete, have been experimenting with catching Barn Swallows as they go to roost. 

Here's an adult male with a red throat and long tail streamers...most of the birds we catch at this time of year are juveniles with no or short streamers, and light brown throat patches. 

Paul is now getting much success at sewage treatment works on cool damp mornings. He recently caught over 60 birds in a couple of hours--most of which were House Martins, ......

Teams will be out regularly over the coming week--so more news soon. But to round up this report we have had some great news about one of the Grey Heron chicks we colour ringed back in May. We have had very little information over many years about the movements of our young Herons, but AT LAST, one of the colour ringed birds has been seen in Lancashire at the Marin Mere reserve!. We await further details from the observer, but we didn't expect our birds to travel so far. More details when I get them.