Tuesday 31 July 2018

31/07 Greenham Common

Location: Greenham Common Western Enclosure
Session: 31-Jul-2018 06:45 to 10:15hrs
Headlines: Conditions far from ideal, the wind was stronger than forecast. Birds unfortunately bounced out of the nets particularly phylos warblers. There was quite a lot of activity in the surrounding scrub mid-session that included whitethroat, Garden Warbler, Blackcap etc. Some headed for the enclosure but few were captured with the net billowing in the wind. Unusually we had a recapture from June of a moulting Willow Warbler. It had eight fully grown new primary feathers, one nearly grown primary and the small outer primary was still old. In late June there was no sign of moult, so in about four weeks it had completed its breeding cycle and dropped all its old primary flight feathers; all but one that had now almost regrown. Willow Warblers have a full moult before they migrate and another while in their winter quarters. Most small passerines have one moult a year, usually in autumn, either before they go (Whitethroat for instance and resident species also) or if they are migrants in their wintering area; Garden Warblers for instance. These latter can sometimes start before they migrate, suspend moulting while migrating and complete when they arrive in West Africa where they winter. All the different moult strategies make for interesting ringing this time of year.
Weather: sunny periods, warm, breezy
Present: JL, IW
Nets: 48metres in three rides of 18m, 18m, 12m up from 07:15 to 10:00hrs
Lure (audio): Blackcap, Chiffchaff, Goldcrest, Firecrest, Willow Warbler, Garden Warbler, Redstart intermittently  
Capture (New/Recapture)
07(06/01)
Matching Visit: none

Species
New
Rtp
Juv
Adult
BLABI
1

1

BLACA
1

1

GARWA
4

4

WILWA

1

1
Species
New
Rtp
Juv
Adult










Recaptures: (1) Willow Warbler ringed 22-Jun-2018 as a breeding female now in the last stages of primary moult.

Sightings 25 Species: Some activity in the scrub to the south, several Sylvia warblers present for a while before moving off. The Swallows headed southeast without lingering while the House Martins fed around the treeline for most of the morning. At least two gatherings of Stonechat, seven were working the low scrub on grassland to the east and four associated with the Sylvia warbler gathering. The Hobby flew fast southwest and the Sparrowhawk flew low over the enclosure and into woodland to the north

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