Ringing related

Janet and I set some nets up at Druridge this morning to catch and ring birds. An early start at this time of year is required as the birds tend to go quieter mid morning when it warms up. It was already T shirt temperatures at 5am!

We caught steadily until 10am when it tailed off and we were packed up shortly after 11. We caught 46 'new birds', re-trapped eight birds and controlled one bird. 

We mostly caught warblers and they were mostly this years young and were mostly Willow Warblers. The first bird that we caught was a juvenile Lesser Whitethroat, I caught a female with a brood patch back in June so I presume this juvenile was one of hers. Willow Warblers were still singing and that was reflected in the fact that we caught 14 in total including this bird which was already ringed but with a French ring. It was an adult, but really fresh having almost completed its main moult. We'll wait with interest to hear back from the French ringing scheme.

French-ringed Willow Warbler

 Interestingly we didn't catch any Sedge Warblers but they are still around. A single Reed Warbler was carrying a lot of fat indicating it was on migration.  We caught a few of Robins and Wrens which we were sure were all local birds.  A sign that autumn is here was a Redstart - a lovely adult male that was just completing his main moult. 

Male Redstart

Male Restart showing tail

A Cuckoo was seen in flight when I arrived and  I noted a lot of Swifts heading south at first light.   

We've heard back from BTO recently with some news of birds ringed or re-trapped elsewhere. A Whitethroat and Reed Warbler that I ringed at Druridge were later caught at by Ian Fisher at East Chevington and I caught one of 'his' Blue Tits. More interesting was a Reed Warbler that I caught on 9th June that had been ringed at Titchfield Haven Nature Reserve in August last year, it was ringed as an adult  so had already crossed the Sahara at least four times by the time I caught it at Druridge. 

I've had a walk on the patch every morning this week. Willow warblers have been evident all week and I am sure some of these are passage birds. yesterday, particularly, was good for butterflies with eleven species noted before 9am!

Looking south on Thursday morning

And North - zoom in and you will see the flying ant swarm

Fly-by adult Magpie in 'main moult'

Juvenile Stonechat on the Coal Road

Small White butterfly

Small Copper butterfly

Ringing again

On Saturday morning the forecast looked a bit dicey for ringing but we gave it a go. When we first arrived, it was overcast with a light westerly, but with a light mizzle falling it was too wet to ring. By the time we wandered up for another look at the red-necked phalarope, which was still on the Budge fields, the mizzle had moved through.

We only put three nets up because of the threat of showers, which didn't materialise. A couple of chiffchaffs were in song when we were setting up and we soon caught a couple. Catching was slow though and we only caught 17 birds before the breeze picked up and we packed up at 12.30.

Chiffchaff

We did catch two male bullfinch, both first-year birds, this follows a single female last weekend. Bullies are rare at Druridge so nice to catch a few.

male bullfinch

This shieldbug was on the grass by our car, I think it is Red-legged Shieldbug Pentatoma rufipes

Red-legged shieldbug?

We've had notification from BTO about a couple of interesting recoveries.

The first was a reed warbler that we caught back in July, it already had a ring on it, but not one of ours. It was a breeding adult male, probably nesting in the little reedbed at the corner of the big pool.

Controlled reed warbler

BTO informed us that it had been originally ringed as juvenile back in August 2014 in Suffolk. I am presuming that it was caught on migration having been born up here somewhere but I could be completely wrong...

The second report was recovery of a blackcap that we ringed as a juvenile on the same day in July as we caught the reed warbler. 57 days later it had traveled 510km and was caught by the Cuckmere Ringing Group at Litlington in East Sussex.