On Saturday I was ringing again. Now that the days are getting longer it means earlier starts like I witnessed yesterday. I was at one of my favorite sites and it definitely didn't disappoint. The day started off quite slow with a couple of ChiffChaffs and Blue Tits. We were ringing outside the reserve as well as inside the reserve we normally ring in, and took a look at some of the summer net rides that needed adapting as well as looking at some new ones.
One of the nets we put up (a single 15 meter) caught by far my bird of the day.... the first Black Cap of this year. An absolute male stunner as well. This Black Cap had a fat score of 3, it was possibly still passing through.
You can see the clear moult limit on the wing here in the photo below
Whilst we were at ringing, we were talking about how we didn't catch that many Reed Buntings at this site, however yesterday we caught 3 of them. The male is on the left below and the female is on the right. I think these birds have stunning markings, so next time you see one, have a close look at those colours.
By the end of the day we'd caught 5 ChiffChaffs, we think some of them were just passing through. Throughout the day I was also able to watch a Great Tit going back and to building it's nest, which reminds me, I need to do another check on those nest boxes at my feeding station in the woods near home.
The next blog post will be my 200th and after a day in Angelsey today, I have some amazing birds to blog about.
wonderful little birds!
ReplyDeleteBlackcaps are great birds Findlay. I was watching one yesterday, singing his heart out.
ReplyDeleteI agree about the reedbunting especially the male in full summer/breeding plumage, it's an often forgotten bird by many.
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