A very different August to last years. For a start, numbers were deceptively down, but only because starlings and house sparrows have hardly come into the observatory grounds this year. Indeed the house sparrows which usually demolish our feeders haven't been present in the helgoland in numbers since spring. This is probably due to an abundance of natural food, as starling numbers seem similar to last year and they're gorging themselves on the blackberry crop, as a lot of our passerines are doing. They've also had ample access to water sources for bathing so our ponds are not as attractive to them this year.
Willow warblers were more in abundance this autumn, with 107 ringed compared to last years 61. The other warblers were also noticeably up on last year, especially sedge and reed. Both species were in the low double figures, which is over double last August's numbers for both species, indeed sedge were 10 x the numbers caught this time last year.
Pied flycatchers had a good month with 19 ringed compared to 2022's 6, though spotted were only marginally better than last year with just one ringed, though several others were present during the month.
Despite our overall poor year locally for breeding robins, the numbers ringed this August are almost double that of last year.
Grey wagtails have started dropping in earlier, as is evidenced by 5 ringed so far, compared to zero last august as they hadn't begun serious movement by that time (presumably).
The observatories, and the years, second Blyth's reed warbler, a first year, was obviously the highlight of the month, being caught on one of our handful of decent migratory days, alongside 7 pied flycatchers, with 7 of the rest caught the next day as the wind returned to the west.
Obviously ringing activity is very subject to weather conditions and its been a far wetter and windier year than 2022, and that has obviously affected both species productivity and our ability to monitor the population.
Overall a better month than last August, when you remove 112 starlings and 39 house sparrows ringed, the monthly total was only 171 birds ringed of 23 species, compared to this years 262 of 26 species.
|
Species |
No. |
|
Willow Warbler |
107 |
|
Robin |
28 |
|
Linnet |
19 |
|
Pied Flycatcher |
16 |
|
Lesser Whitethroat |
13 |
|
Whitethroat |
12 |
|
Goldfinch |
11 |
|
Reed Warbler |
10 |
|
Sedge Warbler |
7 |
|
Dunnock |
6 |
|
Grey Wagtail |
5 |
|
Blue Tit |
4 |
|
Blackcap |
4 |
|
Woodpigeon |
4 |
|
Great Spotted Woodpecker |
3 |
|
Great Tit |
2 |
|
Starling |
2 |
|
Chiffchaff |
1 |
|
Wren |
1 |
|
Wood Warbler |
1 |
|
Blyth's Reed Warbler |
1 |
|
Pied Wagtail |
1 |
|
Spotted Flycatcher |
1 |
|
Redstart |
1 |
|
Garden Warbler |
1 |
|
Sparrowhawk |
1 |
|
Total |
262 |