Unexpectedly good catch!!

This morning the team appeared ( after an extra lie in) at 05.15, with no great hopes of a good catch. The previous day had been atrocious with rain lashing down until after dark. However, the sky cleared by about 22.30, and it seems as though birds took the chance to get going.
So it was that we caught 87 new birds, of which the migrant warblers were:- Sedge 18, Reed 12, Chiffchaff 13, Blackcap 8, Whitethroat 2, Garden 1 and Lesser Whitethroat 1. This latter species are always very welcome in the catch and maintain a bit of a mysterious aura amongst birders. They look very smart in their generally grey and white plumage, with a bit of a highwayman's mask setting everything off--as you can see in the pic.....

One of the things that makes them a bit special is their migration strategy which is different to most other British breeding warblers. They set off in a generally south eastern direction to spend the winter in east Africa and the Middle East. So when they appear in a mist net on returning in Spring there is always a chance that an eastern warbler may have travelled with it... we are mostly disappointed!!

We have a good group of trainees with us at the moment and it's always good when an opportunity arises for some learning. Willow warblers and Chiffchaffs cause a lot of problems to birders in the field, but in the hand they are relatively easy to separate due to different emarginations on the primary flight feathers. However-as the following picture shows their overall appearances are actually quite different.

The bird on the right as viewed is overall brighter, much more yellow on the underside, with a much more prominent supercilium ( eye stripe)--it's a willow warbler. The bird on the left is a Chiffchaff with a much more subdued head pattern. You can also see the flight feathers of this bird arenot very long and form a wedge shape. Due to the fabulous quality of my photographic skills, you can't see the flight feathers of the willow warbler--but they are much longer and form more of a point than a wedge. I'll see if I can get a better pic of that for next time.

WEDNESDAY 21st