Teams have been out again this week catching a good variety of birds, but pride of place goes to Gareth at his new quarry site for ringing the first Tree Pipit (aka Tripit) of the year. These birds breed in woodland with wide open spaces in them, Cannock Chase being the nearest area to with a breeding population. As you can see, they are not spectacularly coloured....
... and like many pipit species they can pose an interesting ID challenge. There are 2 common pipit species in the UK, this one and the much more numerous Meadow Pipit. Tree Pipits are long distance migrants and they migrate south during a relatively short time period from mid August to mid September ( Meadow Pipits move mostly from mid September onwards.
So the timing suggests Tree Pipit, but there are several other features which clinch it... The beak is heavier and pinker than Meadow, the underside is 'cleaner' with more clearly defined spots, the legs are clearly pink, and there is a difference in the lengths of the flight feathers which can't be seen on this picture. They are much less common than Meadow Pipits and we may not catch any more this season but it won't be for want of trying.
Most adult birds have had a tough time rearing their chicks--but there's no rest because their feathers will have taken a bashing since they grew them about a year ago. At this time of year they now divert their energies into moulting out their old feathers and growing in their new one--a very energy intensive process.
Hereis a picture of an adult male Blackcap--and you can see how it is losing and replacing in sequence its main flight feathers.
You can clearly see the tatty old feathers on the outside of the wing-and the brand new ones on the inner part of the wing and a couple still growing.
More news soon.....
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