GEDSER - 12th August

Overcast conditions and a significant easing in the wind led to an excellent arrival of migrants with the weather also allowing us to keep the nets open through until drizzle moved in at around 16:00; it was the first very busy ringing day of the autumn with 185 new birds caught with the highlights being a cracking RIVER WARBLER (actually the first bird of the day!), 2 Thrush Nightingales (plus a re-trap from 5th August), 2 adult male Red-backed Shrikes, another juvenile Common Rosefinch (plus a re-trap from two days ago), 13 Icterine Warblers and 11 Marsh Warblers.

                These came in amongst good numbers of common migrants most significantly 56 Garden Warblers (most of them with extremely high fat scores, weighing up to 25g!), 19 Reed Warblers (a dramatic shift in the proportions of Reed versus Marsh Warbler numbers), 16 Whitethroats, 6 Tree Pipits, 9 Pied Flycatchers, 11 Redstarts and 25 Willow Warblers but only 8 Lesser Whitethroats – again, a dramatic shift in the percentage of the catch as these had been by far the commonest Warbler species.   Also of note was an adult Reed Warbler bearing a Swedish ring.

                There wasn’t much time for anything else through the morning but overhead 2 Green Sandpipers, a Wood Sandpiper, a Snipe and numerous Tree Pipits were heard.   A token look from the point (1500-1545) before the weather closed in produced 18 Arctic Terns, 11 Common Terns, 17 Sandwich Terns, 2 juvenile Shelduck, a flock of 6 Herons which came in off the sea, 61 Eider, 5 Common Scoter, 2 Dunlin and a Whimbrel.

 

River Warbler

Whitethroats