Wilstone - 24th September 2017

Calm and warm to start with then breezy again.
06:30 to 11:30
520’ net including the orchard 60’
JT, EM. JSJ, SM and Jen D.

A pleasant morning at Wilstone producing 75 birds mostly Blackcaps, of course. Some very heavy individuals amongst them with more females than males.

Chiffchaffs still singing and the same number caught as last time at 11. Only one Reed Warbler in the nets and a small number of Goldcrests.

Put the tape on for Meadow Pipits at net ride one and attracted seven before the breeze picked up. First bird handled was an adult, would dearly like to get a retrap to have an idea where these birds are from.

Water levels are ridiculously low at Wilstone, which is bringing in a varied mix of waders. Golden Plovers will be here soon I expect.
Johne

	New	Retrap	Total
Blackcap	21		21
Blue Tit	2	3	5
Bullfinch	1		1
Chiffchaff	8	3	11
Dunnock	3		3
Goldcrest	4		4
Great Tit	2	1	3
Long Tailed Tit		5	5
Meadow Pipit	7		7
Reed Warbler	1		1
Robin	2	5	7
Wren	3	3	6
Total	54	20	74

Marsworth 24th September 2017 - some fat Blackcaps

Marsworth
Warm, calm at first becoming breezy
06:00 - 11:00am
Tapes playing - Blackcap on one 60' net and the german Chiffchaff/Goldcrest/Yellow-browed Warbler mix from Chris at the double net (100').

I also put a couple of nets around the hopper which was where the reed buntings were caught.

SPNAME	Row Summary	New Bird	Retrap
Blackbird	1	1
Blackcap	19	18	1
Blue Tit	3	2	1
Chiffchaff	6	6
Goldcrest	2	2
Great Tit	1	1
Reed Bunting	8	5	3
Robin	2	1	1
Wren	1	1
Total	43	37	6

There were only 6 retraps and one of them was a male Blackcap ringed 20/04/2011 and last trapped in June 2013. 

Quite a few of the Blackcaps are now carrying fat, There were two very fat ones (Fat 6+) weighing in at 22.5g and 23.2g, plus a couple at Fat 5 (around 20g). There was also a Chiffchaff at Fat 4, weighing 8g. One of the Blackcaps had a very mottled head with unusually wide brown fringing to the feathers (see photos).

I caught 8 reed buntings, only one already had colour-rings so another seven were colour-ringed bringing the total up to 33. Hopefully we will be able to re-sight these over the winter. One of the retrap female Reed Buntings was still in main moult.

A Goldcrest still in post-juvenile moult was replacing just the two innermost greater coverts.

There were two Cetti's Warblers singing and Robins singing autumn song. The  Hobbies are still here; I must have disturbed them when I arrived because they started calling from the trees above the reed bed in the dark.

Lynne

 Male Blackcap with brown fringed head feathers

Marsworth - Tapes playing and tricky Chiffchaffs

Marsworth
Summary of three sessions in September
03/09/2017 LL, KB, CK
10/09/2017 LL & AM
15/09/2017 LL & AL

We have had three sessions at Marsworth using tape lures, mainly Blackcap and Chiffchaff song with a bit of Willow Warbler, Goldcrest and also tried Redstart (must have been feeling optimistic).
The weather has been quite poor over the last couple of weeks with strong winds and a fair bit of rain but the birds seem to be in good condition. The adults and most of the juveniles have completed moult although we are still getting a few late 3J Wrens and Chiffchaff. With moult mainly over it is starting to get harder to pick out the adults from the juveniles - see below for a couple of photos which show how careful you have to be!
In the latest session today we started to get a few more birds carrying some fat but nothing higher than F3. The Willow Warblers and Reed Warblers are few and far between now but there is no sign yet of any of the autumn migrants such as Goldcrest.
We have been treated to the displays of 4 Hobbies over the ringing site.

Species	Total Summary	unaged	3	3J	adult
Blackcap	94	3	80	4	7
Blue Tit	5		5
Bullfinch	1			1
Chiffchaff	73	1	62	9	1
Dunnock	1				1
Goldcrest	2		2
Great Tit	7		7
Long-tailed Tit	5	5
Reed Bunting	12*				12
Reed Warbler	3		3
Robin	5		4		1
Treecreeper	1		1
Willow Warbler	2		2
Wren	12		6	6
Total	223	9	172	20	22

Here are two photos of known-age Chiffchaffs which show that they are not always easy to age!

This juvenile had quite rounded tail feathers (juvenile tail feathers are usually more pointed than adult tail feathers) but it did have 5 OGC visible which helped to age it as juvenile. It is possible that it had replaced the tail but I don't think so because there is a hint of a fault bar showing in the photograph on the left hand side, and possibly T5 has been replaced on the right . 

The adult Chiffchaff had surprisingly pointed tail feathers - the feathers are quite broad and they have the pale grey edging which seems characteristic of adults but it would be easy for this bird to be misaged as a juvenile if you looked at tail shape alone.

Juvenile Chiffchaff KEA648 15/09/2017 (5OGCs)
Originally ringed 29/08/2017 as 3JP 

Adult Chiffchaff JYV145 15/09/2017
Originally ringed 15/05/2017 as 4(M)