Another Vagrant Emperor was on the wing in Top Fields.
After their pretty dismal start this spring Wheatear numbers have improved no end this week and today they outnumbered anything else on the ground; we have begun to see Greenland/Iceland Wheatears in some numbers over the last 10 days or so but, to our eyes at least, they're still well outnumbered by apparent nominates © Geoff Orton:
From the Obs mist-nets today our sixth Grasshopper Warbler of the week was a nice catch and further evidence of their return to form after several extremely lean springs - we didn't ring any at all last spring! We're always surprised at just how huge their tails are - a feature that, together with their big, floppy undertail covert feathers, you'd imagine ought to be quite an encumbrance for a long-distance migrant; presumably it confers all sorts of advantages in other respects although we're not entirely sure what these might be © Martin Cade:
Also on the ringing front we've been rewarded with a steady flow of controls and recoveries in recent days; none has been particularly spectacular in its own right but cumulatively they've shown very nicely the wide geographical origins of the migrants stopping off at Portland: one of our Cetti's Warblers from last autumn was recently caught again just off the island at Tidmoor, beside the Fleet; Blackcaps we've handled in recent days were first ringed at likely breeding sites in the Scottish Borders and in Staffordshire; we've handled singles of Reed Warbler and Sedge Warbler that had first been ringed as migrants in Gloucestershire and far west Cornwall respectively; one of our spring Willow Warblers from last year was caught again a few days ago at Skokholm Bird Observatory; and finally, one of our spring Goldfinches from last year was subsequently caught again in northern France last winter. This is the Blackcap from the Scottish Borders that we've only just received the details of so they're not yet on our all-time Blackcap recoveries map © Martin Cade:
