The last post ended with a promise to bring you up to date on Liz's trip to Norway. In essence she had a fab time, with the Hawk Owl ( plus another one mid visit!!) being the undoubted highlight. In addition she ringed hundreds of birds--with big numbers of Redpoll and Reed Bunting plus good numbers of many northern breeding birds. Remember this site is 300 miles NORTH of the Arctic Circle, and it never ceases to amaze us how many birds migrate through the area--where are they all coming from? That's what we hope to shed some light on by this ringing programme. Thanks very much to hosts Nigel and Sissel, and Tomas for getting the project together. We hope to have a team up there next year too.
Redwings are common breeders in Varanger, and we have caught lots there over the years--but Liz had a really interesting bird--shown below......
The top bird is a 'normal' local breeder; but the lower bird is distinctly much more heavily marked, under the wing and on the sides of the breast. It's also a bit bigger. All these features are consistent with Redwings which breed in Iceland--so what was an Icelandic Redwing doing flying to Norway before it flew south .......??
Some way further south, Kev and Gareth are almost at the end of their birding and ringing trip to Shetland, staying on the island of Bressay. Birding has been pretty good--culminating in Gareth finding a spectacular bird called a White's Thrush late on yesterday--worth checking a field guide to see what this eastern Thrush looks like. On the ringing front they have had a couple of semi rarities, in the form of a Blyth's Reed Warbler and a few Yellow-Browed Warblers, like this beauty...
These are gorgeous little warblers which 20 odd years ago were extreme rarities in the UK. It appears that their migration and their breeding grounds have expanded westwards from their east Asian origins and they are now very regular migrants in September, being found in almost all parts of the UK.
Although not a migrant, this crow was an interesting bird for the guys to handle...
It's a Hooded Crow--which replaces it's very closely related Carrion Crow the further north in the UK you go. Strangely this bird replaces Carrion Crow over most of Europe--all a bit weird and difficult to explain. I'm sure there is some research to illustrate what's going on--but I haven't found it.
Meanwhile, back on home territory, members of the group have kept the home fires burning, with lots of Meadow Pipits being caught, buy Kev and Gareth before they travelled north, and by Paul--who has topped 150, over the last few weeks at BP Farm.
For a little brown bird they are pretty cool. Their passage through our area is almost over now--with most of the birds wintering in central and southern Iberia, and a few moving on to north Africa. Pete has just arrived for week on holiday on the coast of north Spain; and the area he stays at is one of their wintering areas and over the recent visits he's told us about the big numbers of 'mipits' on the nearby estuary.
It's great to see Tom back in the action. He put on a demonstration at work last week, and caught this magnificent beauty.....
It is of course a Green Woodpecker, a great showstopper for visitors, and a bird we only ring very infrequently--the last one I caught was in 1979!!
Out in mid Wales, Pat reports a dearth of Siskins--wonder what's happened there? However, showing how unpredictable ringing can be--he had a first for his garden last week, with this delightful Chiffchaff
Further south still saw some of the group in the Algarve, southern Portugal for our 16th annual ringing camp. There's lots I could write because it's an exciting and rewarding opportunity, but suffice to say that it feels that our findings are being used to conserve the area and stop developments--as well as providing more insights into various aspects of migration--including mapping out the catchment area from which birds travel to either pass through or winter in the Algarve. Our latest controlled individual Reed Warbler had been originally ringed in the Czech Republic--indication just how far east in Europe, birds are coming from to this superb area. We ringed 1850 new birds of 52 different species during the trip-and all of these will be entered on the Portuguese database over the coming weeks. Just to give you a flavour of some of the lovely birds we ring--here are a few photos.....
A stunning male Bluethroat with a picture of the tail below.....
Bonelli's Warbler is related to our Willow Warbler but has a 'washed out' face and bright green edges to its wing and tail feathers...
This Nightingale shows the stunning rufous tail of this species.
While this juvenile Subalpine Warbler is much less colourful than an adult male.
Little Bitterns are stunner--with a fantastic beak for catching small fish and amphibians and invertebrates...
This is a Wryneck, showing the grey brown iris of a juvenile bird.
Lastly this picture of a Melodious Warbler shows ( in a slightly exaggerated way how big the bill of this species is--avoiding any confusion with a Willow Warbler
If there are any further reports from Shetland before the guys get back, I'll report them in my next post.
