May saw our ringing team complete 12 sessions (including Bempton village), of which 3 were at our Constant Effort Site at Thornwick.
198 birds were caught of 21 species, with 106 of these being new and 92 retraps.
CES no 1
A perfect weather day, virtually no wind and some lovely spring sunshine with birds singing all around us.
We caught 43 birds of 15 different species, of these 27 were new and 16 retraps.
Birds caught included Whitethroat, Lesser Whitethroat, Sedge Warbler, Blackcap and Chiffchaff, also Song Thrush, Reed Bunting, Greenfinch and Bullfinch.
CES no 2
Again another ideal weather day, although a little bit too sunny!
A quieter session with 37 birds of 9 species caught, of which 11 were new and 26 retraps.
On checking data it was heartening to have re caught a male Whitethroat which we originally ringed in 2021 as an age code 4 (hatched before the current calendar year) making him at least 4 years old, and he was caught in exactly the same net lane as the first time. Incredible to think this small warbler has already made 4 round trips to Africa and back!
Our last net round of the day as we were packing up proved to be the winner with a beautiful Spotted Flycatcher turning up in the net – the first one to be ringed at Flamborough in spring for many years.
Another summer visitor they pass through Flamborough on migration in spring and Autumn, wintering again in Africa sometimes as far south as Namibia, around 7000km from their breeding grounds.
They are declining as a breeding species and have been on the UK red list since 1996.
Spotted Flycatcher are unusual in that they moult in a reversed order to all other European passerines, moulting their primaries and tail feathers ascendantly and the secondaries descendently. We could not age our bird as Spotted Flycatchers complete a full moult of their feathers in their wintering grounds, and as male and females have the same plumage and size we could not sex it either as there was no brood patch/cloacal protuberance.
CES no 3
Not so ideal weather wise as there was a moderate breeze, however we still managed 21 birds of 11 species. 11 of these were newly ringed alongside 10 retraps.
Birds of note included 3 newly fledged Song Thrush, 1 Whitethroat, 1 Lesser Whitethroat and 2 Greenfinch.