Sunday 20 July 2014

Sludges

As birders we don't half give some not overly flattering 'nick names' to some cracking birds and Sedge Warbler is no exception. I presume that some birders refer to them as 'sludges' because it is close to 'sedge' and perhaps sludge represents the colour. We caught a few Sedges this morning and a fresh juvenile in the hand is a sight to behold, absolutely stunning in an ever so subtle sort of way and nowhere near sludge! I prefer some of the old regional names for Sedge Warbler such as Sedge Wren, Sedge Reedling or perhaps Sally Pecker or Sally Picker in Ireland (sally = willow)!

It was perfect conditions for ringing this morning in the reedbed with full cloud cover and just the hint of a WSW wind, although this would pick up a bit later. Ian and I ringed 23 birds as follows (recaptures in brackets):

Whitethroat - 4
Sedge Warbler - 6
Reed Warbler - 4 (1)
Great Tit - 2
Blackcap - 1
Reed Bunting - 1
Lesser Whitethroat - 1
Wren - 1
Willow Warbler - 2 (3)
Chiffchaff - 1

 Whitethroat

 Willow Warbler

As we drove round to the reedbeds at first light we pushed a flock of 15 Lapwings up and these wouldn't be the only waders of the morning. We had a Black-tailed Godwit over and then as we were sat at the ringing table nattering between net rounds a Snipe 'dropped' from the sky and landed a few yards in front of us! Of course as we went for our cameras the bird 'legged it' as you would expect!

As has been the pattern for the past few weeks there has been a number of Alba Wagtails exiting a roost somewhere to the north and flying over us. We had success last winter in tape luring them down as they headed to the roost at dusk, so perhaps we need to try the same as they exit the roost!  A few hirundines were around this morning with a reasonable flock of twenty House Martins and the only other thing of note is the Great Crested Grebes have now got two young from their second brood.

High pressure is dominating for the first half of the week so I will try and get out ringing again, perhaps Tuesday, at some of the coastal bits of the Obs.

1 comment:

Warren Baker said...

I await my customary single sedgie to pass through here this year, although it's not a gauranteed sighting!