What a mixed up week! Two days of wind and rain, a one day window for a ringing session followed by even more rain. And then for Friday the Met Office promised another cloudy, showery, and unsummery day. They were wrong (again) of course as I sat outside in 22°C at 1430 while Julie the mobile hairdresser trimmed what’s left of my thinning hair.
It was Tuesday when Will and I met up for the single ringing session of the week, hoping mainly for juvenile warblers.
The catch of 15 proved slightly disappointing through the lack of variety that the 15 birds gave us - 6 Reed Warbler, 5 Sedge Warbler, 1 Willow Warbler and 3 Blue Tit.
Sedge Warbler
Reed Warbler
Three of the Reed Warbler were recaptures, two from this year and one from 2022.
Reed Warblers are perhaps on of the most site faithful bird species, whereby individual birds will return to the same patch of reedy habitat year after year after spending their winter in middle Africa.
Our single Willow Warbler was a very welcome bright and lemony individual after a poor spring of catching this species.
Willow Warbler
It seems that many other ringers are reporting the dearth of Willow Warblers this autumn with little in the way of theories or evidence as to the reasons of the species’ scarcity. It is perhaps related to the very dry spring of April/May followed by the sun-baked month of June, all of which resulted in an apparent lack of insects. But now the month of July has been intensely wet, following the weather pattern of recent years, four weeks good followed by four weeks of bad and masses of insects.
Disappointment arose because of the lack of other species around - no Whitethroats, Blackcaps or Garden Warblers when we might have expected at least a single representative of each of their species. Instead, 15 Pied Wagtail, 1 Meadow Pipit, 2 Grey Heron, 2 Little Egret, 1 Buzzard, 4 Goldfinch and 15-20 Swallows.
Grey Heron
Little Egret
Pied Wagtail
Meadow Pipit
Compensation for the slow ringing came by way of sight of a young Yellow Wagtail mixed in with the pied variety, this an early date for a now uncommon species’ autumn dispersal.
The three species of UK wagtails, Yellow, Grey and Pied can cause intense discussion amongst less experienced bird watchers, mainly because all three of the youngsters of each are “grey”. Below is the Yellow Wagtail subject of this post, quite grey above but with a pale yellow wash to the underparts.
Yellow Wagtail
While the Pied Wagtail is fairly easily sorted, and leaving aside for now the pitfalls of spring and autumn White Wagtails and Pied Wagtails respectively, the ID differences between Grey Wagtails and Yellow Wagtails causes discussion, not least amongst followers of Another Bird Blog.
In August 2016 and again in July 2021 I decided to remedy this with the post “Yellow Or Grey”, a posting that has since proved to be the most read post in 15 years blogging. Yellow or Grey
Enjoy the weekend everyone, be it grey, yellow, pied, or better still, sunny,
Linking today to Eileen's Saturday Blog.
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10 comments:
Hello,
It is sad to hear the birding is so slow and some birds are dying. Your Warbler photos are so cute. I love the Heron and the Little Egret. Cute captures of the Pied wagtail, the Meadow Pipit and the Yellow Wagtail. Thank you for linking up and sharing your post. Take care, have a great weekend.
What a week! Unpredictable weather, birdwatching surprises, and interesting sightings. I'm also dealing with intermittent monsoon rain.
How innocent the birds look like.
I do like that MATT cartoon ...
Lovely photographs of the birds, a very nice selection to enjoy :)
Have a good weekend, the weather down South is mixed!
All the best Jan
Great pictures! The little warblers are so sweet!
We had some hot, dry weather that makes me worry about the wildlife.
Nice post, Phil, and thanks for providing the link last week.
Hope you have a great week and are able to stay cool!
Thank you for sharing at http://image-in-ing.blogspot.com/2023/07/rural-hood-ornament.html
Bad weather seems to be the norm this summer. Nice photos today
One begins to wonder whether our avian friends tune in to the telly for flight planning from the Met Office. That might explain their helter-skelter schedule as the seasons progress. I know I would be confused if I relied solely on those reports!
I had to re-read the post to be sure I didn't miss the report on dying birds. Thankfully, reports of their death may have been an exaggeration, although it's still unfortunate the dearth of Willow Warblers has yet to be explained.
Masses of insects would seem to bode well for masses of hungry birds desiring a meal. Hopefully, the weather, the bugs, the birds and the ringers will arrive at a happy confluence in the near future.
All is well in the sub-tropics. Loud thunder as I type. The rain should start soon and will result in wonderfully steamy conditions for the morning swamp walk.
Gini passes her greetings to you and Sue and Julie the mobile hairdresser.
The birds have been a bit thin for the last couple of years in my garden Phil, but over the past few months they have completely disappeared. I just hope things get better. Take care Phil.
Mike.
Glad the Yellow Wagtail compensated for the slow ringing.
I hope things improve.
Happy Wednesday, Phil
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