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.