April 19th
There were no fewer than 37 Wheatears on Longis common first thing, and a pair of White Wagtails in the Obs garden. Overnight the winds had turned Easterly and dropped away to near perfect conditions at daybreak.
Reed Warbler – Longis Reserve
Other warden commitments meant missing out on ringing a lot of birds this morning, and wouldn’t you know it, there had been an outstanding fall of migrants in good numbers ! Time was limited and such was the volume of birds I only opened 2 nets from which were processed 50 birds by 0830. These included a UK Control Blackcap, a fine Redstart (our 1st adult male), 7 Whitethroat and 2 Sedge Warblers. By the afternoon the winds had strengthened and turned NE, I opened a couple of sheltered nets between 1530 and 1800 hrs catching another 10 birds including another juv male Redstart, 1 Swallow, 1 Meadow Pipit and our first Reed Warbler of the Spring. During the PM ringing session a Nightingale gave several blasts of song from the thickets beside the hide and a Yellow Wagtail passed overhead.
An early evening ringing session by Paul Veron in Mannez Quarry proved productive with 19 birds processed. These included our first Lesser Whitethroat and provided us with a ringing day total of 79 birds. Paul also reported from Mannez seeing 2 Common Redstarts, a Ring Ouzel, 10+Whitethroat and 30+ Willow/Chiffs.
Adult Male Common Redstart – Longis nature reserve