The favourable weather continues to provide the islands with birds although this morning there was less mist and the migrants would fairly clearly see the mainland on both sides of the Dee, resulting in fewer birds dropping in during the morning. Finches still provide the majority of interest with 27 Lesser Redpoll and 20 Siskin over and a couple of House Sparrows and 2 Greenfinches were grounded, although 6 Chiffchaffs and the second Willow Warbler of the year and a new Goldcrest were also in the paddocks. A Redwing (left) and 2 new male Blackbirds were ringed this morning. There were no Wheatears for the 3rd day running. A Magpie was seen early and was then joined by 4 others to make a group of five that soon scattered with some seen flying very high and appearing to be looking for a better place. Whether the 4 Magpies from yesterday were the same individuals is a matter of conjecture, as all but one seemed to have gone yesterday afternoon. More records of Wood Pigeons this time only 3, and a lone Canada Goose made it onto the log. Thirty bar-tailed Godwits were seen to fly off to the north, and another 2 were still feeding on the tide edge.
Ringed:- 8 Lesser Redpolls, 4 Chiffchaffs, 2 Blackbirds, 1 Redwing, 1 Willow Warbler, 1 Goldcrest, 1 Greenfinch. One of the Redpolls was an interesting bird in that it was in all other respects a normal looking Lesser Redpoll but with a wing length of 76mm which is well out of range for a British bird (especially for a female) but comparable to some northern Redpoll races.
(DB,JE,CJ,KMc) [259-19] photo CJ
2 comments:
Any chance of seeing an image of the large redpoll?
It sounds like it could be a Rostrata, the Greenland race of Redpoll.
Interesting that you had no Wheatears again. I climbed the Old Man of Coniston in Cumbria today, and there were several singing and displaying males already on territoty.
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