This morning we tried another pre-CES visit to the Delta-end of Attenborough Nature Reserve.
We put two lines of nets up through woodland. The weather was cool, sunny, and slightly
breezy.
Unlike the previous week, we couldn’t use tape lures this time as 1st April is the cut-off for
migrants. Fewer Chiffchaffs were caught as a result, though many were heard. However, we did
catch more Blackcaps and presumably they had arrived since our previous visit.
Many species were already showing signs of breeding. The 6 Wrens we were treated to allowed us to compare the ageing criteria in different birds - whether the black lines running along the secondaries and primaries are clean or stepped.
One of the Blue Tits showed a contrast between new and unmoulted primary coverts. Luckily, it
was a retrap so we could confirm whether it was a young bird that had moulted to a greater
extent or an adult bird that had undergone a main moult but missed those few feathers. It was
an adult. Interestingly, when it was ringed as an age 5 it had retained 5 OGCs; a very high
number of unmoulted feathers for a juvenile Blue Tit. So in both instances, it had moulted less
than we would expect.
Total 31 birds: Chiffchaff 1, Goldcrest 1, Wren 6, Treecreeper 1, Long-tailed Tit 2, Blackcap 6,
Great Tit 3, Blue Tit 6, Robin 3, Dunnock 1, Blackbird 1. One of the Blackcaps was a retrap from
2021 that had not been caught since.
Holly
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Net ride |
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Adult Blue Tit wing with unmoulted primary coverts |
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first year Wren with 4 old greater coverts |
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adult Wren |