Another Record breaker!!

I mentioned yesterday that I had little hope of doing well but ( not for the first time) I was proved wrong. I was hopeful about this morning because the forecast was almost perfect. Because it was the second morning in a row I suggested we meet a bit later at 7 am but Pete and Kev were at the site for 6 am for a usual start time. And were we glad they were!!
There had clearly been a big fall of migrants--mainly Blackcaps again, and we ended the morning with a record breaking 163 new birds of which was a record breaking 124 Blackcaps insane!!
The supporting warbler cast was made up of 9 Sedge, 5 Reed, 5 Chiffchaff and singles of Willow, Garden, Whitethroat and Lesser Whitethroat.
A few Meadow Pipits were moving though and we caught three--one for each trainee there--which proved very educational as below:-

The vast majority of Meadow Pipits we catch are juveniles and can be aged by having two generations of feathers ( juvenile mainly with some moulted in adult feathers)--as can be seen in this bird. Most of the non flight wing feathers are white or cream tipped including the three terials ( the feathers lying on top of each other at the innermost part of the wing next to the body)

In contrast this adult bird has broad buff edges to these same feathers, they are all similarly edged, and the centres of those feathers are blacker than those of the juvenile bird.

It's not often that out of such a small catch of this species, we were able to get our eyes in on what to look for in juvenile/adult plumages.

Lastly, I make no excuse for posting a couple more pictures of the Lesser Whitethroat we caught today--they are just so SMART.