Continental Coal Tit (?) and more Sibe Chiffs

Another calm week gives us the opportunity to get back into our sewage works sites, with this morning seeing us at Gwennap works. The cold weather meant that good numbers of Chiffchaffs were taking advantage of the abundant insects on site, and our 58 birds caught included an impressive 33 Chiffchaffs. Of these, five were 'Siberian' Chiffchaffs (tristis race), some more distinctive than others.

But the highlight was this rather interesting Coal Tit, which we're pretty sure was of the nominate Continental race. Whilst it didn't have the classic peaked-crown appearance, the blue-grey mantle and very extensive bib do seem to point towards this race. We're keen to hear other opinions though...

The five tristis Chiffchaffs also gave us the opportunity to compare the extremes of the race, with two birds being of the classic cold grey appearance, whilst the others showed varying degrees of olive/yellow in the plumage. Below is one of the least obvious examples, but DNA identification of such birds does always comes back as tristis.

Dutch-ringed Chiffchaff (and 28 others)

With a carload of the group out of county cannon-netting ducks and waders with the Axe Estuary Ringing Group, I was on my own at Gwennap sewage works today. With just two nets, a couple of hours produced a very respectable 41 birds, including 29 Chiffchaffs!

The highlight was the bird below, which I thought was a British control (AAH203 - actually a Wren ringed in Cumbria in 2003) until I noticed the ring address which read 'ARNHEM HOLLAND'. Dutch-ringed Chiffchaffs aren't very regular in the UK, with fewer than 30 previous records. This isn't the first to be found in Cornwall though, as one was retrapped at Brew, near Sennen, in May 2007. Oddly this bird had been ringed just nine days previosuly in The Netherlands, so a very odd movement!

Another interesting bird was this Siberian Chiffchaff. Not the classic bird, lacking all olive and yellow tones, but a more subtle type. But it still showed very washed out plumage tones, along with a slightly flaring supercilium behind the eye and jet black legs.

Bit of sunny weather on a cold day was all it took to
bring out the insects and hence the birds

The 'bycatch' of the day wasn't too shabby either, including one of two Yellow-browed Warblers and one of three Firecrest present at the site.

Last few Chiffchaff of the year

Barring calm enough winds tomorrow to net a few garden birds, today saw the last mist-netting of the year for the group. A morning start at The Lizard caught a few Goldfinch, Greenfinch and House Sparrow, and we then headed on to Gwennap Sewage Works. The cold start to the day had brought reasonable numbers of birds into the works, but the afternoon sun meant the insects were up in the trees, so most of the 20 Chiffchaff and three Siberian Chiffchaff there were too high to catch. But enough were milling round the site that we still managed to ring seven collybita Chiffchaff and one tristis Siberian Chiffchaff.

The tristis Chiffchaff (left) stands out against the 'standard' bird on the right, lacking olive-green or yellow tones on the plumage. Seems odd, but tristis Chiffs always seem to fluff up...

Travelling between the two sites today, we stopped off to check a dead bird on the road for rings, but by the time we'd turned round it had miraculously recovered and was stood in the middle of the road! After narrowly being missed by a passing car, we managed to scoop up a stunned adult Water Rail and take it with us. After a short while in the bag we normally store our nets in (and a nice portion of Sardines we bought for it) it recovered and was quite feisty. So it was duly ringed and released into the more salubrious setting of the new reedbed at Gwennap.

Swallow roost bonus

Having seen how much the reed had grown up at our sewage works site at Gwennap (check out the original reedbed in this blog post), last night we opted to see if any Swallows were roosting there. Bit of a long shot, but if you don't go and check you'll never know.

It didn't look too good as there weren't many birds around anyway, but we stuck up a few nets and hoped. We even added a speculative net alongside one of the settling tanks just in case one of the two regular Green Sandpipers there dropped in. So to cut a long story short, the roost only produced six Swallows and a Chiffchaff, but the extra net chipped in with three more Swallows that got the 'balancing-on-the-top-shelf-for-fun' game a bit wrong and also the hoped for Green Sand - the first ever caught by the group.

This was an adult in active wing moult, and apparently adults birds begin their complete moult on the breeding grounds and slowly moult through migration, finishing on their wintering grounds. Some will also suspend moult part-way through migration, continuing it later in the autumn. As in many waders, it is usually the female that departs first, leaving the male to raise the young which will then start to come through the UK later this month. Either way, a very smart bird indeed!

Our bird wasn't too far into the moult of its primaries
and hadn't started on the secondaries yet.

Robins (and Earth girls apparently) are easy...

Our first proper team outing of the year saw us dropping in to a couple of our sewage works sites: Carnon Downs and Gwennap. The day saw us catch just 38 birds, but this did include 17 Chiffchaffs and a scattering of Pied Wagtails, Meadow Pipits and 'others'. One of the others was a juvenile Robin that showed quite nicely how easy they can be to age sometimes.

Apologies for yet another poor iPhone photo

On this bird, note how the retained juvenile greater coverts (yellow in colour) show obvious 'thorns' that are longer towards to bird's body, whereas the moulted adult-type greater coverts (more orange in colour) have more limited 'thorns' which are more obvious on the outside of the feather tract. Simples!

Unfortunately we didn't catch the three Siberian Chiffchaffs on the two sites nor the Yellow-browed Warbler at Gwennap. Next time...

Another sewage Sibe, and a shiny new reedbed

Another frosty morning meant another look round some sewage works; this time our more regular ones. With very few birds at Carnon Downs we headed straight to Ponsanooth, where there were at least three Siberian Chiffchaff and a mix of other things. We only caught 30 birds, but that did include two very smart Grey Wagtails (dodgy Instagram photo below), a Woodpigeon and a few Chiffs.

One of the Chiffs was a classic Siberian tristis bird and we had the chance to grab a pic along with a more local bird for comparison.

Another interesting bird was a retrap Goldcrest from last winter, so one we know was an adult. Goldcrests are aged on tail shape, with juveniles more pointed than adults, but this bird wasn't the most obvious!

As the catch dried up, we had an hour spare to drop in to Gwennap, where the very amenable guys at South West Water appear to have created us a shiny new reedbed! This is a pretty exciting prospect and it'll be interesting to see how it develops and what birds it attracts.

Even in its current state it had already drawn in two Green Sandpiper, a Snipe and a Water Rail.