Doc.B's Nature Blog

Maybe better add a few notes for the uninitiated regarding these birds.So working along from left to right top line.

Keeping it simple Female Sardinian Warblers as a rule have a grey crown and males a jet black crown.They are the commonest scrub warbler down here.I must apologise for all the fingers in the shots.They are just record photos for me as it is difficult to hold a bird in 1 hand keeping it calm and photographing it using a mobile phone in the other.

All nets are strategically set to trap the birds.Again keeping it simple,many birds move along the edges of vegetation rather than in the centre of thickets so this net is set at right angles half in and half outside .There are 2 bird callers on the ground by the net,as this makes the birds present in the area inquistive and they dont see the very fine mesh of the net and fly into it and become a little tangled ready for me to safely extract and process them.Sometimes I target a specific species ,and some respond very well to their own call.

Photo 3 is a Common Chiffchaff,not possible to sex as both males and females look the same,in ringing terms they are not sexually dimorphic.This waif weighs a mere 7 grams or so but was in great condition carrying plenty of fat so probably had flown a long to get here.It will spend the winter in the area or may even fly over to Morocco

Bottom line first is the usual pesky Blue Tit,taking its annoyance out on my fingers.Believe me I have ringed 100’s of them in UK back in the day and they are just the same there!! This is a typical male ,a female has a much duller blue coloration.

Working along to the 1st.winter male Blackcap.1st.winter means it was born this year and one of the tell tale signs is the brown tips to the crown feathers which are quite clear in this shot.All the 26 Blackcaps I trapped today were migrant/wintering birds.They could have come from anywhere in W.Europe incl.UK.How do I know?? Well firstly local Blackcaps have a shorter wing length than migrant birds but there is an overlap,You cannot put nature in boxes .There are always exceptions to the rule.But I have found a simple rule to sort out the anomalies.By measuring the wing length and Tail length,then dividing wing into tail,gives a figure less than 1.90% plus with a figure more than 0.85 are local birds and less than 0.85 are migrants.

Local birds have a proportionately longer tail.

Last picture is a typical female Blackcap and yes you have guessed it,female Blackcaps have a brown cap and males a black cap!!

Well in total I trapped 40 birds which is far more than I normally would catch in an E.wind,hence the surprise.The other surprise was that on the last net round there were 29 birds waiting to be extracted.”Dont panic” And what is unusual ,it was a mixed feeding flock,something you would normally find in a woodland.plus in this flock were 2 Long Tailed Tits (Sorry no Photo),and I have only ringed 8 others at this site since I have been ringing there and I started in the year 2000.!!

Those 8 I trapped in July 2014,6 on 1 date alone,so probably were from the same nest.

So thats all for now but watch this space.Although the wind from W.today is not good will put out a couple of my sheltered moth traps to see whats about.So more photos to follow tomorrow,hoprfully something interesting.But as with bird ringing you never know what might turn up,nature is full of surprises!! BFN.