After 10 days South I met up with Colin and Stan last night for a session in the reed bed.
Last week when Colin and Stan were down in the reed bed they hadn't caught any Sedge Warblers so it was looking like these birds had set off on their migration South to warmer climes. But not all of them have gone as the first bird we caught was a Sedge Warbler and we had a second one later in the evening.
As well as the usual Swallow soundtrack playing Colin also used a Pied Wagtail soundtrack as well as there has been an increase of Pied/White Wagtails on the islands over the last week and we had seen a number flying around the loch area. We saw quite a few of them flying over and dropping down into the reed bed but only managed to catch four.
One of the wagtails was an adult male who was moulting some of its primary and greater covert feathers. This gave Stan and myself a chance to practice our moult scoring. One of the other birds created some good discussion on ageing as it looked like a youngster but it had already moulted some of its greater covert feathers but not its primary feathers. Also some of its tail feathers had been replaced. As these two birds had been caught at the same time we were able to look at both birds together for comparison.
Total birds caught this session was 21 birds comprising 4 Pied Wagtails, 2 Sedge Warblers and 15 Swallows.
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