Trap Happy!

Blyth's Reed Warbler in the hand (photo: Will Miles). Beautiful? We think so!

A day of Breeding Bird Survey, Guillemot monitoring, Fulmar monitoring, census and even a cheeky, but totally unproductive seawatch, saw us all kept rather busy. In amongst this were a great selection of birds, with the list slowly building through the day and the highlights including Blyth's Reed Warbler, Greenish Warbler, Icterine Warbler and two each of Black Redstart, Cuckoo and Quail.

The Heligoland traps have been busy today, with a recent quiet spell brought to an end with the trapping of an eclectic mix including the BRW, Cuckoo, Collared Dove, Mealy Redpoll, Redwing, a few Spotted Flycatchers and a Lesser Whitethroat. Most of them were 'bycatch' as Johan attempted to catch Starlings as part of his research, his patience was finally rewarded when he caught a few of his target species this evening!
It was Jason though who was the lucky Warden to pull the rarity out of the box though, as his solitary trap round was the one that produced the Blyth’s. It was instantly suspected as this species, but the name was barely whispered until the measurements confirmed it. Soon the red flag was flying as we rounded up guests and islanders to enjoy views in the hand. It was seen again briefly in the garden this evening, hopefully tomorrow will produce some decent field views.
With the wind forecast to be still in the east for a few days at least, perhaps there may be a few more good birds turning up – or is that just being greedy?