A brilliant morning at Lower Moor Farm, crowned by ringing my first Yellow-browed Warbler. Everybody knows that the numbers of them have been very high this autumn - but that is in coastal regions: there haven't been anything like as many records inland. With the easterly winds that have been blowing on and off for the last few weeks I had been hopeful that one might turn up. Jonny Cooper, one of my ringing trainees, saw one at Morgan's Hill on the 12th October but, despite using lures to try and attract one in, we hadn't seen hide nor feather of them at any of my ringing sites.
This morning's session was just myself and Ellie Jones (it is so helpful having the reserve manager as one of your ringing trainees), and we decided to focus our efforts on the wildlife refuge area and try out some different net positions from our standard CES positions. We did erect two of the usual rides and three new net rides. Immediately upon completing the net set, we noticed that there were four birds in one of the usual net rides. As I got to the ride I noticed what looked like a Chiffchaff: and then I saw the wing bars. I couldn't believe it: Yellow-browed Warbler in the net, no lure, no expectations and a stunning looking bird.
If that wasn't enough, we had a nicely productive morning and did a couple of impromptu ringing demonstrations to families visiting the reserve. Ellie taught the children how to identify the sex of Goldcrests, and then got them to sex the birds for us. They were very good. Hopefully she has sown a seed of interest for the future.
The list for the day was: Treecreeper (2); Blue Tit 5(3); Great Tit 2; Long-tailed Tit 9(7); Wren 1; Dunnock (1); Robin 1(1); Blackcap 1; Chiffchaff 3; Yellow-browed Warbler 1; Goldcrest 7(2); Goldfinch 1; Bullfinch (1). Totals: 31 ringed from 10 species; 17 retrapped from 7 species, making 48 processed from 13 species. Unfortunately, the wind got up at about 11:00 and so we had to curtail the session a bit earlier than I had planned. Ellie had to leave for a meeting (the inconvenience of having a job) just as we finished taking down the main net rides. I had just one net left to take down (along the lake-side in the picnic area) where, as is par for the course when you think you have finished for the day, there were 10 Long-tailed Tits and one Blue Tit in the top shelf of the net. Still, with the dearth of all species of Tit caught this year so far, I am not really complaining. ST/EJ