Andy’s shiny new battle wagon didn’t bring much luck today. Just a week ago we had the best catch of the autumn so far with 43 birds, https://anotherbirdblog.blogspot.com/2020/07/business-as-usual.html.
This morning we set up the ringing station in the hatchback expecting a good catch on such a fine and warm morning. If anything, the south-easterly breeze was a little too blowy with the glaring sun on mist nets providing an unwanted addition.
There seemed to be few birds around and we struggled to even
reach double figures with 4 Willow Warbler, 2 Goldfinch, 2 Wren, 1 Robin and 1
Chiffchaff.
Willow Warbler
All Chiffchaffs look unkempt at this time of year. Both adults and juveniles undergo their respective moults. The one below is in post-juvenile moult.
In contrast to our poor catch the morning provided a good
show of visible migration by Swallows. The four hours with not much to do allowed
time and opportunity to watch and count groups of Swallows. In the clear skies they
arrived from the north in small gangs of 5-15 individuals that fed on the wing around
the buildings and woodland edge before each one of them headed south. We counted 150 + in four hours of observation.
July 31st may seem early for Swallows to begin their long migration but that is
exactly what they must do to reach South Africa for their second summer.
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20 comments:
I think a swallow is making a nest in my garage! Seems like a swallow only.
Hello,
I wish the Swallows a safe journey. I love the Goldfinch and the pretty Willow Warbler and the adorable Chiffchaff. Great photos.
Take care, happy birding. Thank you for linking up and sharing your post. Enjoy your day, have a great weekend!
Hi Phil, I look forward to seeing the swallows, which means it will be warmer in our part of the world. What an incredible journey (pun intended) these birds undertake. I loved seeing the "scruffy" chiffchaffs. Yes, I also had issues with the new blogger; and thought it was only me. Have a great weekend. Jo
Thank you for this interesting post with the photos!
Havea good day, Elke
What a gorgeous photo of the Swallow and interesting to see the migration routes. We see Swallows here year round but they are almost impossible to photograph. They dart and swoop too much! lol Enjoy your weekend!
The new blogger is really annoying. It takes ages to get the pictures and the text aligned properly, the labels take longer to do, and the arrangement and design of the signs for different tasks is far from intuitive. It's crisper to look at but absolutely nothing new has been introduced. Pointless exercise in change. I join you in your displeasure.
Hi Phil,
Iam glad to see someone is getting the birds because we don't seem to have any here in Sussex. Nice post. Stay safe. Mike.
Your swallow photo looks like it belongs in a bird book! All your other photos are also great, and interesting as always reading your post. I switched away from Blogger but I've heard others mention being a bit frustrated with the new format. Hopefully, it'll get easier for you soon. Hope you're having a terrific weekend so far.
Hello. The migration of birds is a miraculous phenomenon.
Oh Phil these are so cute! I am happy you guys have been ringing again and seeing these beautiful little guys are happiness to my sight! I really like the way you take photos of them that even if it's just one side, it seems like they are looking at the camera!
I have been adjusting to the new blogger theme as well Phil but it does look a lot cleaner especially when you compose using HTML compared to before where there is no color coding for the tags so now it's easier to see if something is not closed. But for the other parts, it does seem a bit tricky to be honest, especially when adding labels, whenever I search by typing, it treats the keyword as new even if the label already exists Ha!
Have a great new week my friend, oh the weekend went really fast for me! Hope this new week will not be as stressful at work compared to my last few weeks.
At least the morning was not a total disaster :-) The shot of the swallow is gorgeous. Re the update; I went straight back to the old style, I hate changes. Easy to do. Keep well and have a good week, Diane
How do you CATCH them?
Thanks for linking to us this week!
I don't think I've ever seen a willow warbler before - a handsome bird
At least you had a nice warm morning to enjoy! Now, if the birds would just cooperate.
To my uneducated self, your July ringing numbers seem impressive. The relatively few birds today probably means they are preparing to overwhelm you as August gets underway.
Terrific map showing the Swallow's migration route.
All is good here as we were not affected at all by the recent hurricane. Hoping all of us have a wonderful new week!
So small and yet so far....
I reverted back to the legacy interface - I hate the new interface and noticed that a couple of my drafts that were missing reappeared when I switched back to the old interface.
Fascinating to see the migration routes. Love the photos.
Thank You - Fabulous Migration Chart - Be Well
Cheers
Phil - our swallows have also moved on. One day, dozens flying and perching periodically in the large dead aspen. Next day, all gone!
Yes, I have had difficulties with the new interface. Captions do not show up, labels are much harder to add, "saving" stops working for no apparent reason. Sigh.
I think many are having problems with new blogger!!!
Lovely photograph of the swallow.
All the best Jan
Swallows and their migration are amazing.
WordPress is also changing its workpage and it looks less user-friendly too...
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