Wraysbury GP - 30th December 2018

A last chance to monitor this site before the new year, so we skirted the mound of rubbish that has been illegally dumped in the car park, set five nets on C6 and waited to see what was happeneing on site.

We could see that a large number of corvids were coming into the horsefield periodically, also good numbers of gulls again in the area where the horse graze. Perhaps opportunities for another time.

We got a few Goldcrest and just three of the Redwing that were flying overhead from time to time. A Chiffchaff was unexpected, although we do know that they regularly over winter at our Broadwater and Stanwell Moor sites. Wraysbury C6 seemed a  bit too open and exposed although C4 would definitely be a more attractive prospect having better cover and feeding for small birds. Perhaps the hot summer and mild winter have encouraged more summer migrants to spend the winter.

1st winter Chiffchaff

Age 3 Redwing

The third of the Redwings caught was particularly dark and had a wing of 122mm compared to the other two with 114 & 116mm. The weight was also higher at 71.4g versus 66.2g and 61.4g. The undertail covert feathers had some extensively dark centres, but not all, leading us to ask ourselves whether this might have been coburni rather than the usual iliacus. We decided that being well within the range of iliacus and these birds being so variable we would not record it as anything else.

Total: 16 (4)

Blackbird - 1
Song Thrush - 1
Redwing - 3
Chiffchaff - 1
Goldcrest - 4 (1)
Long-tailed Tit - 5
Blue Tit - 1 (1)
Great Tit - 0 (2)