To date the group has ringed an unprecedented 8 Chiffchaff in November(4 each at Heysham and Leighton). The most we have ever ringed in November before was 3 in 2010. The occasional bird winters in our area , so it will be interesting to see if more stop this coming winter. Judging by our ringing Chiffchaff have had excellent productivity this year. Our average catch over the past five years was 185. This year we have caught 462 so possibly the record numbers to date in November are a spill over from this excellent productivity.
This weekend we caught a further three Cetti's Warblers bringing our Leighton total to 13, the highest yet recorded. The fascinating thing is that although at least 6 pairs were located in the breeding season we only caught one during our spring and summer ringing which produced a total of 1240 Reed warblers so the effort was there. The others were caught in October and November. Historically this has been the pattern; of 40 ringed in previous years only four were caught in summer.
A Cetti's controlled at Heysham on 28/9 was not ringed by any of our local ringing groups. So we await with interest full details from the BTO.
John
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