Another trip to Broadwater with very low wind and temperatures creeping up again as we near the end of the third week in September, and things had changed quite a bit since our last visit some 10 days ago. Warblers were right down with fewer Chiffchaff, hardly any Blackcap and absolutely no sign of Willow Warblers. The tits on the other hand were much more in evidence, as Chris said "It's becoming rather too tittified." This can be demonstrated numerically by looking at the ratios of warbler to tit. On 15/09 the ratio of tits to warblers was 1:7 ( both original numbers being divisible by 4), however today's catch came in at 7:8 ( after halving the actual numbers caught). There were a few other species including a couple of Chaffinch and the third Treecreeper for the month.
Treecreeper aged 3
Ageing criteria - drop shaped pale trip on 3rd outer primary covert
We also made a quick dash to the net to secure this young Sparrowhawk.
Sparrowhawk. Wing of 194mm indicated the youngster as male.
Gender confirmed by emergent grey feathering.
The House Martins were tantalisingly close but remained just too high for any realistic chance of capture and the Cetti's Warbler still fails to comply with all the literature that states just how readily they will come to the audio lure. All the same we managed over 30 birds - not bad considering we didn't start until after 9am.
Total: 32 (5)
Sparrowhawk - 1
Dunnock - 1
Robin - 1
Blackbird - 0 (1)
Blackcap - 1
Chiffchaff - 12 (3)
Chaffinch - 2
Blue Tit - 9 (1)
Great Tit- 4
Treecreeper - 1