Mainly about Mipits......

 Much action again this week, with over 250 new birds ringed. Most of these have been Blackcaps and Chiffchaffs, typical autumn migrants making their way to southern Europe for winter rather than southern Africa.

However, another intriguing species is starting to come through in good numbers-Meadow Pipits ( or mipits for short!!). Intriguing because we're not absolutely sure where they come from--or where they go. To add to the problem, they are quite a challenge to age ( we can't sex them as males and females look alike). I have tried below to show the key features of tail and wing feathers to help ageing--only up to one year old as is the case for most small birds.

First the wing.....here is an adult wing, where all the feathers have the adult feature of broad buff edges to most of the non-flight feathers.....

Compared to this juvenile wing where many of the feathers show juvenile much lighter coloured tips

This juvenile is quite easy to age, however, many show sometimes only a few juvenile feathers in amongst adult ones so you need to look very carefully.

Moving now to the tail, first an adult tail with all rounded broad feathers......

Again, this compares with a juvenile tail with mostly narrow, often pointed feathers.....

Finally, birds quite often show anomalies in their feathers and tis mipit had patches of white feathers in the head--quite confusing for the unsuspecting......