Warblers, Warblers, Warblers!!!

Last weekend's ringing session at Linacre was quite quiet, with just 7 birds ringed, so yesterday, with the weather conditions perfect, we (Sorby Breck Ringing Group), were out at Poolsbrook Marsh, a large area of reed bed and scrub near Staveley, to see if we could improve on that total.... and we did!

Poolsbrook Marsh

We arrived on site at 4.30 am, and, after a little net lane management, we had the nets up ready to start catching birds. The first net round was accompanied by the sound of a reeling Grasshopper Warbler. The first bird out of the first net was also this species and turned out to be the first of 3 caught and ringed- a new species for both Stewart and me! One of the birds caught was a juvenile. which is also a great breeding record for the site. Here's a shot of that first bird.

Grasshopper Warbler

We stayed on site until 9.30 am, and during that time, we managed to catch adults and juveniles of another 6 species of warbler (Willow Warbler, Chiffchaff, Blackcap, Whitethroat, Reed and Sedge Warbler), along with a couple of Blackbirds, juvenile Robins, Reed Buntings and  Blue Tit), bringing the morning's total to 44 birds- nice! Two of the Reed Warblers were re traps, with very similar ring numbers, so were most likely ringed here, by our group in previous years. I'll update when I get the information back from our data manager.

One of the young Willow Warblers I ringed sat quietly on my hand for about 10 seconds before it flew off, so I was able to get this super photo. What a privilege!

Willow Warbler