September review

Mick sums up the latest month....

''WOW, what a month! With some 1155 birds ringed this month of 37 species I think you could say its been a busy month and the second highest monthly total we have ever had. It started well with the 3rd producing
165 new birds the highlights being 57 Whitethroat, 35 Blackcap and 15 Chiffchaff and ended with a fall on the 27th producing a good mix of birds including 30 Reed Bunting, 29 Chiffchaff, 25 Blackcap, our first Grey Wagtail for the year and yet another Spotted Flycatcher, the third of the year, when they can be described as intermittent at best is a great result. We also controlled a Chiffchaff and a Reed Warbler on that day, an addition to the Blackcaps we controlled on the 20th and 24th. It would be great if they both came from the same part of the country as it would possibly give us an indication of where the migrants came from that day. The rest of the month produced a lot of highs and lows with an unexpected catch of Swallows and Martins between the 12th- 21st , this was a period of time when the weather was dank and overcast together with a persistent westerly wind. Each morning we went just after first light and Swallows and Martins would turn up flying up and down the hedge line in search of food so we erected nets to catch some and were fairly successful managing to catch some 126 over the 10 day period. A great result as we are usually not very successful at catching them. Meadow Pipits have been about 10 days late in arriving this year possibly due to a late breeding season due to the cold spring so the catching of the species did not start till the 21st and since then we have caught 72. A little disappointing but not bad as very few have moved through up till now. It has to be said the real stars of the month have been Chiffchaff and Blackcap with 245 and 236 birds being caught, these birds respond to sound lures very well especially for the first hour or so after dawn, try it and join in the fun !!!!
Finally on the 28th we caught a Redwing, the first we have ever caught in September and the earliest by about two weeks. We are hoping now for October to continue in a similar way.''

Mick