New Year, old Chiffs

It seems to be New Year tradition now that the Cornish weather turns cold enough and calm enough to warrant a visit to the local sewage works. Today was no exception and thankfully the hail showers stayed away long enough to allow a couple of hours mist-netting at Gwennap Sewage Works. There were a LOT of Chiffchaffs around, picking insects off the tanks and from the bushes and small trees surrounding them. My estimate of 80 birds was probably rather conservative.

It only took two nets around a settling tank to keep me pretty busy, catching 81 birds! Of these, an impressive 56 were Chiffchaffs, including seven ringed in previous winters. Four had been ringed on 1st January 2020, with others ringed on 19th January 2020, 4th January 2019 and 5th January 2017. The latter bird (HHB667) was caught again in December 2017 but not since, so in its fourth winter at the site is remarkably site faithful. The national longevity record for Chiffchaff is only 7 years 7 months, so HHB667 is quite exceptional for a wintering bird.

In amongst the 'nornal' Chiffchaffs were several paler, eastern Siberian Chiffchaffs (tristis race) and I was lucky enough to catch four, including an exceptionally pale frosty bird. These eastern visitors normally make up 10% of our wintering birds, so the four caught is about the norm.

Some of the 'bycatch' was interesting as well, including Firecrest, three Grey Wagtails, Pied Wagtail, three Bullfinch and Meadow Pipit. With the weather set to stay cold and calm next week, we'll hopefully have more to report soon.

New Year, new Chiffs

It's been a long time since we've blogged, but what better time to change that than New Year. Today was a rare calm day and despite not being very cold we decided to have a couple of hours at Gwennap Sewage Works anyway. The vagaries of ringing at sewage works is that we often only use the smallest size rings (AA) and today was no exception. In the two hours (and just three nets) we ringed 28 Chiffchaffs, including this very smart tristis Siberian Chiffchaff. Unfortunately we didn't recatch any ringed birds from last winter (when we ringed 44 Chiffchaff here), but once the colder weather arrives I'm sure we'll be catching more.

There were well over 40 Chiffchaff on site (and two Yellow-browed Warblers), so plenty more to keep us occupied on the next calm day. The bycatch wasn't too bad either: Firecrest, two Long-tailed Tits and the obligatory Wren.
 

Zilpzalp at Gwennap

In the UK most Chiffchaffs will be summer visitors, spending the winter to the south and west of us, neatly shown by the online ring recoveries map, showing most recoveries in France and Iberia:

But the wintering birds we see here in Cornwall come from points north and east, a fact confirmed today with the capture of a bird at Gwennap Sewage Works that was wearing a ring from the Hiddensee scheme in Germany!

There have been just 12 reports of German-ringed Chiichaffs in the UK so this was a pretty special bird! This was pretty lucky as we only caught three Chiffchaffs, compared to 23 at the previous attempt when it was colder.

Returning Sibe Chiff kicks off 2018

In the first mist-netting venture of the year, it only seemed right to head to the sewage works. So just two of us braved the early morning frost to get a few nets up at Gwennap Sewage Works. It took a while for the sun to stir up the insects enough to get birds moving, but once they did (and with the addition of a 'sewage mix' on the MP3) we didn't do too bad, ending up with 62 birds.

The total included 23 Chiffchaffs, two of which were Siberian 'tristis' Chiffchaffs. Interestingly, one of these was already carrying a ring, having been ringed at Gwennap in December 2016. This is only the second time we've recaught a tristis in a subsequent winter, adding to the evidence that these are returning wintering birds, not lost vagrants.

Of just as much interest was the recapture of the bird below, originally ringed in September 2016 in North Norfolk! This was presumably a recent autumn arrival in Norfolk when ringed, so was presumably from points north/east.

Just to round off the day nicely, and very typical of this autumn/winter, we ringed an impressive NINE Firecrest, which is a good winter total, never mind from one morning.

First Chiffchaffs of the winter

Mist-netting has been a bit slow of late, but with the weather finally turning cold and the wind amazingly light we took the opportunity to make our first visit to the local sewage works. First stop was Gwennap, where as many as 65 Chiffchaffs were feeding in low hedges and bushes around the site, so with just two nets we were able to catch 35 birds, including a single 'tristis' bird and also two birds ringed last winter (both on 5th January). We only caught five adults, so two ringed was a reasonable ratio!

Next stop was Carnon Downs, where there were fewer Chiffchaffs (perhaps just 25), but they were all now in the tops of the trees in the warmer afternoon, so we only caught a single bird. But we did see another 'tristis' bird and also a ringed bird, so we'll be back again as soon as the wind and weather are favourable.

Apologies for the lack of photos, but we were a bit busy ringing birds to take photos...

Parisienne chic at the sewage works

It only seems right that our first ringing session of 2017 should be rather similar to our last ringing session of 2016, so it was off to the sewage works this morning. In two nets we managed to catch a non-too-shabby 67 birds, which included no fewer than 31 Chiffchaffs.

The only slightly shabby thing about the morning was the state of the forehead of the bird below, as it seemed to be moulting in new head feathers. But it may just be Parisienne chic, as it was already wearing a French ring, so it'll be fascinating to see where it's from!

 

There are just 26 records of French-ringed Chiffchaffs being found in the UK, with two of these being in Cornwall, including one we recaught at Carnon Downs sewage works back in February 2012.