25/08 Greenham Common

Location: Greenham Common Western Enclosure (wk34)
Session: 25/08/2023 07:45 to 11:00hrs

Immature Male Redstart

Notes: The first Redstart of the season, we get one sometimes two here most years. Chiffchaff in good numbers and more needing close inspection again. We had one or two that looked like Willow Warblers on first inspection, but the wing length and wing formula confirmed them to be Chiffchaffs. We also had a Willow Warbler with a brown colour cast and quite dull plumage that looked like a Chiffchaff, but had the normal wing formula of the former and the wing length - 70mm is near the upper limit of 73mm for this species. The longest wing length for a Chiffchaff with the wing formula recorded is 66mm and for Willow Warbler it's 73mm all as found in the digitised NRG records back to 1973.

Present: JL,IW,KMB.
Weather: bright, sunny periods, calm to light breeze, warm but cooler than the last few days.
Nets: 48metres 3 Rides, 18M, 18M and 12M up from 08:00 to 10:30hrs
Lures: (BC-CC-WW-GW-WH-LW-GC-FC), (W-WC-SF-RZ-TP), (GH-RW-SW-RB-AW), (RT-DW) intermittently. 

Recaptures: (none)

Sightings: A flock of at least 20 Canada Geese flew along the treeline to the west as we were putting the nets up. Great Spotted Woodpecker and Green Woodpecker were active for much of the session. A Green Woodpecker was seen being harassed by two Magpies. The Migrant Hawker was caught in the net; this enabled it to be easily ID’d. The one or two hawkers seen on the wing were too fast to be sure of the species. Not much butterfly activity, the temperature was lower than for the last few days.