Wild Ken Hill - 8th May 2022

We had a beautiful day for our session at the Marsh pasture with plenty of early morning birdsong. We managed a catch of 30 birds that included a few very interesting firsts for the year. 

We caught our first Garden Warbler and also had the first young of 2022. The Long-tailed Tits were quite freshly fledged and to ensure that the whole troupe remained together, they were ringed at the net and released straight away, hence no cute photos. 

The other very interesting bird had already been ringed, but not at Wild Ken Hill. It was a control, meaning the bird has travelled from another ringing site. Now, we had a control Cetti's Warbler on 14th April that had been ringed near Broughton, Stoke Ferry, Norfolk 34km away. That bird had been ringed on 20th August 2021 and has now moved to Wild Ken Hill, is breeding and we were very pleased with the movement. Cetti's Warblers have only really started to become well established in the UK over the past 10 years or so.

Today's control, a Sedge Warbler, has been marked with a ring bearing details for the Belgian ringing scheme, another first for us at Wild Ken Hill! We do not yet have details and that may take a while, but we can say that it would have been bred in the UK and ringed in Belgium (probably - as scheme rings can occasionally be used in other countries) while on migration. Once we have the date that it was ringed, we'll know whether it was travelling to or from the Sahara at the time.

Belgian ringed Sedge Warbler. This bird was coded age 4, meaning we can only say it was hatched before the year of our capture. This is because the young and adult birds both do a complete moult on arriving at their winter quarters and the plumage has no clues as to age on return to the UK. The previous capture may provide more precise data on the year this bird was hatched.

Ring issued by the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, Brussels, 16979731

Garden Warbler

Lesser Whitethroat with 'pollen horn', caused by foraging in flowers.

This may have developed either entirely on reaching the UK or during the the migration from East Africa through Europe.

Spot the Cuckoo and the decoy.

As usual, there were plenty of birds that we didn't catch, and that included three Cuckoos. We did try using a plastic decoy, but to no avail.

Total: 22 (8)

Dunnock - 0 (1)
Robin - 0 (1)

Cetti's Warbler - 0 (1)
Sedge Warbler - 4 (4)
Lesser Whitethroat - 2
Garden Warbler - 1
Blackcap - 3
Chiffchaff - 0 (1)
Long-tailed Tit - 9
Blue Tit - 1
Chaffinch - 1
Reed Bunting - 1