The catching yesterday of Reed Warbler X091217 produced interesting findings. It had been first ringed 7 years 359 days previously as an adult so it was at least 9 years old. Perhaps the most interesting finding was that it had not been retrapped since 2008 despite our RAS study on Reed Warblers at Leighton Moss in which we catch around 160 adults each year, although there are probably 200+ Reed Warbler pairs breeding at Leighton. Our oldest ringed Reed Warbler was 9 years and 293 days after ringing as a juvenile. The national record is 13 years. Always intrigues me that Reed Warblers appear to live quite a bit longer than other warblers. Our record for Sedge Warbler, Willow Warbler and Lesser Whitethroat is 5+ years and Blackcap 4 years. Amazing that yesterdays bird has made the trip to West Africa and back 9 times.
The highlight of the previous days ringing was the catching of a Reed Warbler with a Icona Madrid ring. This is only our fourth Reed Warbler from Spain. It was extracted from the net by Javier who comes from Spain, we thought at first he was having us on until he produced the bird!
John
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