The catch was made up thus (New/Retraps) - (0/1) Meadow Pipit, (1/0) Sedge Warbler, (1/0) Lesser Whitethroat, (2/1) Whitethroat, (1/0) Blackcap, (3/0) Chiffchaff, (1/0) Willow Warbler, (0/1) Great Tit, (2/3) Greenfinch, (3/0) Goldfinch and (1/0) Siskin.
The Sedge Warbler was the first one of the year and this is surprisingly not actually early historically. Although consider that as recently as 2008 we had no Spring Sedge Warblers caught at all and in 1994 we caught none at all during the entire year!, it is actually quite a good result. Mostly the Gib Sedge Warbelrs turn up during tyhe second week in May although there have been around 10 years since 1949 when they have been caught during April. The earliest catches ever were on the 20th April 1983, 19th April 1968 and an amazingily, the earliest record ever was the 9th April 1989! Overall, in recent years, the 20th is a fairly early date for the first Sedge Warbler.
The Meadow Pipit retrap is the 3rd one caught this year and was actually ringed on the 23rd June 2010 as a nestling on the reserve, the first retrap of a Gib nestling in recent years.
The Lesser Whitethroat was also the first of the year and is four days earlier than last year and six days earlier than 2009. Indeed todays bird was actually the earliest ever beating the previous earliest ever Lesser Whitethroat ringed on 24th Apr 2010. This species seems to be arriving earlier and earlier with virtually no April records before the start of the new millenium.
The Siskin was the 40th New Sikin ringed this year which is a very respectable Spring total for Gib. The Goldfinch pictured below showed some interesting colour tones amongst it head feathering today when caught at Aylmer Avenue today.
All good stuff!, good effort George, wonder if there will be any possible firsts for the year, left for me (Mick Briggs) to catch by next weekend?
Also Reported on the reserve on the 20th Apr -
Hoopoe! (Report recieved by email on the 24th Apr!)
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| Goldfinch ringed on the 20th Apr 2011 at Aylmer Avenue showing some unusual colour tones amongst the head feathering. Photo - George Gregory |
