Sibilatrix

Friday morning we went ringing at my ringing site again. The thunder and rain they had forecasted for the night didn't come out at all.. which was good for us. There was no wind and there was a complete cloud cover, perfect!

In the first round I came upon a great surprise in the net: a Wood Warbler! This was one of the species I was hoping to catch here, and now we did! It's not a species that's ringed very often (especially not at the breeding grounds); the main ringing records come from the coastal areas (the isles) in autumn. It's the first time I ring this species here in Holland. The bird was an adult female; it was surprising to see how good the condition of the flight feathers was, you would expect a much more worn bird. There were (young?) birds calling nearby, in the adjacent oak forest; same place where a male has been singing this entire spring.

 Wood Warbler (Phylloscopus sibilatrix), adult female; having a broodpatch

Wing of the Wood Warbler, note the good condition of for eg. the tips of the primaries and secondaries.

Another new, but expected species for this site was a 1cy Nuthatch. It was about time that we would catch one here! While doing a nestbox survey on Wednesday I had already noticed a large flock of young birds: many Tits, mixed with Willow Warblers, Chaffinches, Great Spotted Woodpeckers etc. I had hope the flock would still be around, and it was. We only managed to catch a small piece of the flock on Friday.

Nuthatch (Sitta europaea), 1cy

Among the tits we recaptured three juveniles that I'd ringed as pulli on this site this year. Good to recapture some! Furthermore it seems that most of the (adult) Pied Flycatchers have completed their post-breeding moult and left, none were caught this session.

Totals:

Blackbird 1 -
Blackcap 2 -
Blue Tit 1 -
Crested Tit 2 -
Great Tit 9 - 3
Great Spotted Woodpecker 1 -
Nuthatch 1 -
Robin 5 - 2
Song Thrush 2 - 1
Willow Warbler 5 -
Wood Warbler 1 -

Total 30-6 = 36
11 species