Icelandic Mipits?

With clear skies and calm conditions some ringing at the obs was on the cards and I headed to the southwest of the recording area at first light to try my luck. It was pretty cold at 0600 and there was quite a ground frost, but luckily only the car roof was frozen and I didn't need to waste time clearing frost from my windscreen before I set off.

I was on my own this morning, as Ian went to another part of the recording area, and I just put up three nets that I hoped would be best for 'tape luring' diurnal migrants. There wasn't too much evidence of grounded migrants this morning other than a few Robins, Dunnocks, a Tree Sparrow and the Reed Warbler that I trapped later in the morning.

The vis got going almost straight away and it was dominated by Meadow Pipits. My totals included 723 Meadow Pipits, six Grey Wagtails, three Woodpigeons, a Linnet, three Sparrowhawks, four Goldfinch, 172 Pink-footed Geese, a Chaffinch, 127 Swallows, 15 Greenfinch, ten Alba Wagtails, five House Martins, three Skylarks, and a Reed Bunting.

I processed a total of 24 birds as follows (recaptures in brackets):

Robin - 2 (1)
Meadow Pipit - 14
Greenfinch - 5
Reed Warbler - 1
Wren - 1

 Greenfinch

Some of the Meadow Pipits that I trapped were quite long winged, with one individual being very long winged, and I wondered whether they were of Icelandic origin. I had three birds with a wing length of 83 mm, one of 84 mm and one of 88 mm!

The weather synopsis is looking interesting over the next couple of days with some strong easterlies forecast. There has been quite an influx of Yellow-browed Warblers and Red-breasted Flycatchers on the east coast and northern isles and it is likely that some of them will make it over here!