Linacre Ringing and Insects - 30th June 2019

I haven't done any mist netting at Linacre since the end of March, so yesterday morning I was down there with 3 other members of the Sorby Breck Ringing Group. We had just 3 hours before the wind picked up, but we managed a respectable 38 birds, including our first juvenile birds of the year, and a very nice retrap.

Juvenile birds made up the majority of today's birds (29 out of the 38 birds caught), and consisted of Blue and Great Tits, Blackcaps (2, and the first of 2019), Whitethroat (1, the first of 2019), Dunnock (1) Robin (4, also the first of 2019) and Goldfinch (1).

Goldfinch (juvenile)

Robin (juvenile)

The retrap was an adult male Whitethroat. It had been ringed at Linacre on 1st July 2017 (1 year 364 days ago), as a 5M (i.e. born in 2016). This was the first it had been retrapped since then, and showed signs of breeding. I saw a ringed Whitethroat at Linacre back in May (see here), which was singing in the ringing site, so was presumably this bird. 

Adult Whitethroat

Totals for today were (new/retrap): Dunnock 2/0, Robin 4/0, Blackbird 1/0, Song Thrush 1/0, Whitethroat 1/1, Blackcap 3/0, Blue Tit 13/1, Great Tit 8/0, Nuthatch 1/0, Goldfinch 1/0 and Bullfinch 1/0.

We also heard our first Garden Warbler of 2019.

After the ringing session I stayed on for a short while, and saw my first Volucella bombylans hoverfly of the year, and a pair of Large Skippers.

Volucella bombylans

Large Skipper (female)