A bright sunny morning.  Net rounds were excellent until the north-westerly wind picked up at about 09:30, after which it was very slow going. 

 

In addition to 520 feet of net in reedbed edge / young willow scrub (160 feet), reedbed (180 feet) and ‘fen meadow’ (180 feet), we put up a triangle of three 60 foot nets in the open field.  This was to try and catch pipits: a trip to Kenfig earlier in the week had resulted in 26 tree pipits being captured, which is fairly exceptional in Welsh terms (it exceeded the number of tree pipits captured in Wales in 2013), and we were keen to add a few more to the tally if we could.

The catch was very varied (for the site): 20 species.  The highlights were tree pipit (5), grasshopper warbler, our fifth new kingfisher of the year, four Cetti’s warblers, and steady numbers of garden warbler, blackcap and willow warbler.  Acro numbers remain low: we did catch 12 reed warblers, but this is fairly unremarkable in a large reedbed!

 

Tree pipit were heard calling regularly over the site this morning.  Birds that were trapped had two measurements taken to confirm species: hind claw length and bill depth.  Hind claw length in tree pipit is shorter than in the similar meadow pipit (7-9mm as opposed to 10-13mm), and the bill is deeper (measured from top to bottom) behind the nostrils (over 4mm in tree pipit).  These measurement were taken with calipers: the bird below had a hind claw of 8.3mm and a bill depth of 4.1mm.  The fine streaks to the flanks can be seen here.  The ‘stronger’ bill than in meadow pipit was obvious on some of the pipits – the head markings on this first winter bird are not particularly clear, however.  Colouration varied considerably according to the light the birds were in.

 

 

Bird numbers in 2014 to date are below.  Three thousand new birds at the site by the end of the year is now the target.  We will need a big September!