Comings and Goings

 In the last few posts, I've talked about the fantastic controls we've had of Siskins from eastern Europe. The 'comings'. In the last week or so, we've had reports of Siskins we have ringed which have been found elsewhere--the 'goings'.

This first bird was found in Suffolk....

We have been a tad intrigued by this but I wonder if it is one of the eastern invaders on it's way back to mainland Europe via a relatively short crossing--who knows?

As well as birds from eastern Europe, I think the next image illustrates that birds from Scotland also featured heavily in the birds we caught.

We have already had 5 birds recaptured by ringers on their way back to Scotland.

Not part of the Siskin invasion but equally interesting is this record of a Chiffchaff ringed at Belvide which I reported on recently. 

This bird was re-trapped in Switzerland--only the second British ringed Chiffchaff to be caught in Switzerland--who would have guessed?

Gareth has been putting in the hard yards at his quarry site with little return in many ways for his hard work. However, a couple of weeks ago he scored big time with a superb male Whinchat

These are stunning birds which breed sparsely in upland/ moorland regions. This bird had obviously stopped off to feed and obliged by popping into a mist net. As Gareth says--it's days like this that make the bad days worthwhile.

Meanwhile I and a couple of other old timers had a few days at the bird observatory on Alderney Island one of the Channel Isles. Like many islands--especially in the spring they can be brilliant with lots of birds passing through--or very quiet--it all depends on the wind. As we arrived on the late afternoon flight on the first day, the wind had been ok and we were met by the warden, John, with a photograph of that mornings start bird......

A magnificent adult male Golden Oriole--oh how I wish we had caught an earlier flight!! The wind changed overnight to a brisk north easterly and migration pretty much stopped. 3 days of looking at empty nets--followed as the wind eased by a trickle of migrants. As sure as eggs is eggs, the day after we left, the wind went southerly and they caught 250 birds in  a fraction of the nets we had been using. Ringers always have tales of woe-- a bit like twitchers who arrive at the spot only to be told '' it was last seen 40 minutes ago but hasn't shown since.....''