I ringed the Butterfly Reserve this morning - it's sooo nice that the Nature Discovery Centre is only a couple of roads away from our new flat! Takes about 2 minutes to get there - amazing!
Yesterday and today I've heard loads of Chiffchaff's! At work last night I was midway through talking to someone outside the building when I heard a Chiffchaff really close by and all attention to the conversation was lost 😋 they must've thought I was crazy... 😌 it was no different at the Butterfly Reserve this morning - Chiffchaff were noisier than anything else! I put a mixed tape on of Chiffchaff, Goldcrest and Firecrest (still hopeful), and as it's nearly the breeding season I'll not use tapes again, but it did get me a Chiffchaff in the net this morning! First one of the year for Newbury Ringing Group 😃 I even remembered the wing formula without having to think about it - impressive!
For the people reading this who don't know what the wing formula is, it's a method used to tell apart similar species, in this case Chiffchaff and Willow Warbler. You have to look at the primary feathers for the emargination (I don't know how to describe it... like indents on the outer side of the primary), the wing point (longest primary) and look at the length of the second primary compared to the rest of the primaries, and note down which is the same length, or note the two down that the second is between (hope this makes sense).
After the Chiffchaff I caught a Long-tailed Tit. I've seen posts on Bird Ringing groups on Facebook saying that some people are starting to see signs of breeding activity on some birds, so I checked the Long-tailed Tit but couldn't see any signs. Eeeee babies sooooon 💓
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