Busy Week

Unfortunately the 'better weather' referred to last week was short-lived and this week we have been dodging the poor weather in order to carry on.
Having missed a session last week, a break in the weather on Monday afternoon gave Kev and I the opportunity to try late start replacement session with just a few nets open. It turned into a very rewarding visit, with just short of 50 new birds ringed--with evidence of a start of migration with increased numbers of Blackcaps coming through and our first Whitethroats of the season. A couple of juvenile Treecreepers proved that they have bred successfully on the reserve. And an adult male Moorhen was the first of the season:-

Close up these are actually quite stunning birds--the bright red base to the bill and 'shield', gives way to a bright yellow tip to the bill. Adults also have a red iris contrasting with the black pupil. This species can be sexed according to a combination of measurements of the leg and longest toe on one axis and the wing length on the other axis--this was a male.

On Wednesday Kev was out again with son Gareth at their Racecourse site and had a really nice catch of 25 birds including Blackcaps, Chiffchaffs and a Reed Warbler--but the undoubted stars were 3 juvenile Lesser Whitethroats:-

These intriguing warblers are of course migrants, but unlike most of our migrants they don't fly due south to Africa for the winter. Instead they fly south east to the far side of the Mediterranean, then down into the Nile Valley. The best way of separating this species from the Common Whitethroat is by the grey/brown wings --in Common they have bright chestnut brown wing feathers.

 

I foolishly believed the various weather forecast which predicted rain on Wednesday morning, so I cancelled the usual session--no rain fell. So we rapidly re-arranged a session on Thursday. The weather was still not great but we were able to operate and ended up with 45 new birds-still some evidence of migration but really only a trickle. Blackcaps are definitely on the move, and this bird was quite instructive.

All juvenile Blackcaps have a brown cap as they leave the nest--then over the ensuing weeks/months, the cap feathers are moulted out being replaced by brown feathers for females and black for males. This bird is a juvenile male--the wing feathers are in good condition having just fledged in them--but already most of the juvenile cap feathers have been replaced by black ones-although you can still see some brown ones present. We reckon this was probably the result of an early brood and it's parents are probably now rearing another nest full of hungry chicks somewhere.

More rain predicted for Saturday--will we get in a session, or will we move it to Sunday? Who knows at this stage?