Nets: 320' plus 70' by hopper 06:00 - 10:30hrs
LL, GK, CMS
Dark and cloudy start, calm, becoming sunny and breezy by end.
Total
|
New Bird
|
Retrap
|
|
Blackcap
|
13
|
12
|
1
|
Blue Tit
|
3
|
2
|
1
|
Chiffchaff
|
15
|
14
|
1
|
Goldcrest
|
6
|
6
|
|
Great Tit
|
1
|
1
|
|
Grey
Wagtail
|
1
|
1
|
|
Reed
Bunting
|
4
|
1
|
3
|
Robin
|
2
|
2
|
|
Wren
|
4
|
3
|
1
|
Total
|
49
|
39
|
10
|
With the forecast for Sunday looking poor we decided to go on Saturday. It is starting to feel autumnal and we have had to start picking leaves out of the nets. There are a few Hornets flying around and we had two this week chomping their way through the net, both successfully removed.
Blackcaps and Chiffchaff are still passing through and are getting heavier. Ten of the thirteen Blackcaps were carrying fat - the heaviest was 23.4g - but the star of the show was the Blackcap that I photographed last week with the black and brown mottled head.
Last week he was 16.8g - this week 21.0g ! A weight gain of 25% of his body weight in 6 days.
Birds do not carry extra fat unless they need to; these birds are gaining weight in preparation for their journeys to warmer wintering grounds. The Migration Atlas* produced by the BTO shows that British breeding Blackcaps travel down through France and Spain to winter in southern Iberian and northwest Africa. The amount of weight that Blackcaps put on prior to migration gives the birds the capability to fly non-stop to Iberia.
Some of the Chiffchaffs were also carrying fat - one juvenile with a 62mm wing weighed in at 9.6g which is actually the heaviest Chiff we have ever had in September.
The Chiffchaff/Goldcrest/Yellow-Browed Warbler tape mix attracted a few Goldcrests. These were also good weights (5.1 - 6.1g).
 |
| Grey Wagtail |
Lynne
*The Migration Atlas - Movements of Birds in Britain and Ireland (2002)
T&AD Poyser for the BTO ISBN 0-7136-6514-9
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